Jury Goof in Rome

Farouk Chourbagi was a handsome Egyptian textile merchant who mixed fabrics and females while living and loving in Rome. He was found dead in his office off Via Veneto one morning last year, his body riddled with bullets, his face scarred with acid. The cops nabbed Farouk's combustible mistress, a honey-blonde Egyptian named Claire Bebawi, and her rich cotton dealer husband Youssef. Each said the other did it: he in a fit of jealousy, said she; she to end the affair, said he. Both were indicted for murder and went on trial together as codefendants.

Thus began one of the most spectacular murder trials in Italian history. Starting last January, it took 57 hearings and 300 hours of juicy testimony. Witnesses from Egypt, the Sudan, Lebanon and Switzerland babbled in six languages. Claire shrieked obscenities in Arabic, jolting her lawyer, ex-Italian Premier Giovanni Leone. One witness recoiled from facing Claire, and the court traveled to Hamburg to interview her.

The Bebawis turned out to be divorced, though living together, but the prosecution established little else. It failed to produce the gun; it did not shake either Claire's story that she was in the office bathroom while Youssef killed her lover, or Youssef's story that she did it while he was out walking. The whole affair cost thousands--all of it totally wasted. The court has just declared a mistrial for the completely unexpected reason that three of the six jurors were found to be ineligible.

Italy calls jurors "people's judges," theoretically gives them equal status in criminal trials with the two judges. Requirements include "good moral standing," a secondary school education and ages between 30 and 65. Eligible citizens are listed (32,000 in Rome), screened by mayors, magistrates and judges, finally picked by lot. Unfortunately, the screening fails to match the requirements. As the Bebawi trial neared its end, one woman juror turned out to be over 65, another had less than secondary schooling, and a third (a highly educated countess) had gone to a private school not recognized by the state.

Aghast, the government aims to pinpoint responsibility and possibly assess damages. As for the Bebawis, they face a hot Roman summer in jail and may not get a new trial until October. Not that most Italians mind; they loved the first trial and are delighted at the prospect of a second.

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