The defense of Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio has issued a statement after the Milan Civil Court ordered the handover, by 6 p.m. tomorrow, of the entrepreneur's one-year-old daughter to her mother, his former partner Sara Soldati, pending the hearing scheduled for August 10. Del Vecchio's lawyers describe the accusations as "false, defamatory and slanderous," formulated with the intent "to distort the perception of the facts before the judicial authority," and announce that "in the coming hours," in addition to the criminal complaint already filed "against Ms. Soldati and her defense counsel," they will lodge "a further and substantial supplementary criminal complaint."
"The defense of Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio," the statement reads, "firmly denounces that the entire affair has been deliberately and artificially constructed through a systematic and orchestrated succession of extremely serious, false, defamatory and slanderous accusations. Accusations formulated with the precise and deliberate intent to distort the perception of the facts before the judicial authority and to exert undue, illegitimate and intolerable pressure within the context of the financial dispute between the parties."
"The ruling," the statement continues, "was furthermore based on declarations made by a former partner of Dr. Del Vecchio, which the defense considers unreliable and lacking objective corroboration. Legal proceedings of a judicial nature have already been initiated against her for very serious conduct, including the misappropriation of items of considerable value. Factors that make a rigorous assessment of the credibility of her statements all the more necessary."
According to Del Vecchio's defense, "these initiatives are nothing more than a calculated strategy, aimed exclusively at obtaining entirely unjustified financial advantages, instrumentally exploiting the one-year-old daughter and turning procedural tools into a means of blackmail."
The defense emphasizes that it has "already filed a criminal complaint against Ms. Soldati and her defense counsel for the criminally relevant offenses of defamation and slander," and announces that it "will lodge, in the coming hours, a further and substantial supplementary criminal complaint. The objective is clear: to have all harmful conduct, every false declaration and every liability rigorously ascertained."
"The use of false declarations, the pretextual contestation of formally signed agreements and the presentation of artificial and media-driven reconstructions," the entrepreneur's lawyers state, "constitute an extremely serious and unacceptable abuse of procedural instruments. Should such circumstances be confirmed in the competent venues, these would be conducts radically incompatible with the most elementary principles of procedural fairness, propriety and professional ethics."
"The defense," the statement from Del Vecchio's lawyers concludes, "trusts that the Judicial Authority, with the utmost rigor, will ascertain every responsibility and fully restore the truth of the facts without any remaining shadow of doubt, finally freeing this matter from such exploitation."
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