Garlasco murder: Andrea Sempio faces preliminary hearing on 25 February 2027 in Pavia

A hearing set for 25 February 2027

Andrea Sempio, 38, will appear before a judge for the first time on 25 February 2027, when the preliminary hearing opens at the Pavia tribunal. Tribunal president Enrica Bertolotto signed the decree assigning the file to judge Luigi Umberto Riganti, who must decide whether Sempio goes to trial or is cleared. Notices to the parties were still being sent when the reports appeared on 12 November 2026. The Pavia prosecutors, led by Fabio Napoleone, asked for the indictment on 3 November, accusing Sempio, a shop assistant, of killing with hatred and cruelty in the 2007 Garlasco murder. Sempio has always maintained that he is innocent.

Before weighing any evidence, the judge must answer a preliminary question. He has to establish whether the case against Sempio can proceed while Alberto Stasi's conviction is still open to review. Stasi received a final sentence of 16 years for the murder of 13 August 2007, and for now he is excluded from the preliminary hearing as an injured party.

The defence's constitutional challenge

Sempio's lawyer, Liborio Cataliotti, has a constitutional challenge ready to stop the Sempio case from running alongside the review of Stasi's conviction. The defence argues that a court cannot rule on sending Sempio to trial for the same act for which Stasi has been definitively held the only guilty person. On 11 November the full defence team met to divide the arguments among its consultants. Cataliotti said the team was prepared to answer the charge on every front:

“We are ready to face the charges from every point of view, evidentiary, legal and scientific.”

If the constitutional challenge fails, the defence will argue on the merits, challenging the prosecutors' reconstruction and their expert reports. Colleague Angela Taccia works on the case with Cataliotti.

Stasi's conviction and the Brescia review

Stasi's lawyers, Giada Bocellari and Antonio De Rensis, are expected to file a request for review with the Brescia appeal court shortly, according to Open. Open reports that the Milan prosecutor general, Francesca Nanni, will probably file one too, while ANSA says it is not yet known whether her office will do so. Open expects the Brescia court to rule on whether the request is admissible by late February, but it considers a full review unlikely to be completed by then. ANSA's reporting similarly expects the review request still to be unresolved at the end of February, which is why the defence will ask the judge to suspend the hearing or refer the question to the Constitutional Court.

Sempio's words and what the hearing may bring

Speaking to Porta a Porta, Sempio said he hoped to settle everything at the preliminary hearing and avoid going further:

“I understand that it is a complicated position, but I trust they will do their job in the best way.”

Videos taken from Sempio's hard drives, which investigators consider of interest, have circulated on several television programmes in recent days, and Sempio has said that many things were read the wrong way. Former deputy prosecutor Mario Venditti, who a decade ago requested and obtained the dismissal of the case against Sempio, said he would not have sent the case to trial on the evidence now available:

“There is no smoking gun, and there will be no smoking gun.”

According to Paolo Di Fresco, a Milan criminal lawyer quoted by Fanpage, the defence will contest whether the evidence is sufficient and ask for a dismissal, while also challenging the attribution of palm print no. 33 and the genetic traces. Sempio may answer some questions, refuse to answer, or make spontaneous statements at the hearing. During the investigation he was summoned twice: the first time his defence invoked a procedural defect and he did not appear, and on 6 May, the day before the investigation closed, he sat before prosecutor Napoleone but chose not to answer.