Forlì, August 11, 2026 –The four arrested for the murder of 53-year-old Nicola Musiani remain in prison, attacked and beaten on July 19 in a parking lot on Viale del Tritone (where the man lived in a camper), near a nightclub in Pinarella di Cervia, and died on July 22 at the Cesena hospital following the injuries sustained in the brutal group beating.
Read more Farewell to Fiorenza Marchegiani: the actress made her big screen debut with Troisi in 1981
The decision came yesterday early afternoon from the Forlì court, signed by the preliminary hearing judge, Massimo De Paoli, who thus accepted the requests of the Ravenna prosecutor’s office (pm Angela Scorza).
In the morning, the four, Conor Finn Long, 19 years old, Oussama Ragme, 22 years old (residents of Meldola), Bilal Mahboubi (from Santa Sofia), 23 years old, and Houssam Abir, 21 years old (from Forlì), accused of voluntary manslaughter aggravated by trivial motives, were subjected to the validation interrogation of the arrest issued last Friday by the Ravenna prosecutor’s office and then immediately executed by the Carabinieri of Cervia and Milano Marittima, who took the four from their homes to be taken to the Rocca prison.
Conor Long (Italian mother and Irish father), Oussama Ragme (born in Morocco but a ‘Meldolese’ for years), and Bilal Mahboubi (born in Forlì and resident in Santa Sofia) denied all responsibility before the judge.
“We did not beat him. There were other groups”
“My clients (Conor and Ragme) not only emphasized that they did not participate at all in the beating of Musiani, but then precisely provided the magistrate with a series of names of witnesses present at the scene, so that they can be heard by the Ravenna prosecutor’s office – stresses lawyer Elia Valentini –. Essentially, my clients admit that on the night of July 19 they were present in that parking lot in Pinarella, but strongly reject the accusation of having beaten Musiani. At the scene, my clients explained, there were several groups, so we are talking about more than a dozen, or perhaps more than twenty, young people.”
The two young men then told the judge about the position of the minor from Forlì who would be involved in the brawl: “He was not with us. We know him but he was with another group and from what we saw he participated in the fight.”
“They went to Morocco, but that was not a flight”
Lawyer Valentini then clarified the episode of the raid in Morocco by the two boys. A trip that for the prosecutor would have been an attempt to flee: “It was not a flight – the lawyer specifies –. The two young men were scared. They went to Morocco, it’s true, but then they returned with the firm conviction to immediately report every explanation to the investigators. But as soon as they returned they were arrested.”
Read more Shocking video at the port. «My son chased and beaten by the gang: they threw everything at him»
Bilal Mahboubi (born in Forlì, resident in Santa Sofia, the only one with a criminal record with conviction) also denied the charges in court, assisted by lawyer Serena Sansavini: “My client stated that he was present at the scene only for a few moments, after the nightclub around 4 a.m. with his friends, but he also provided the judge with a list of people who can be heard by the Ravenna prosecutor’s office.” For the three, their lawyers had requested house arrest.
Houssam silent before the judge
Houssam Abir (born in Morocco, resident in Forlì) instead exercised his right to remain silent, defended by lawyer Fabio Malpezzi: “The boy exercised the right simply because we only received the prosecutor’s files, in a decidedly partial form, yesterday morning. At the same time, however – stresses lawyer Malpezzi – my client specified that the dynamics of the facts are not at all as indicated by the prosecutor and it will be his intention, in the coming days, to request to be heard by the Ravenna public prosecutor who is conducting the investigations.” Lawyer Malpezzi had requested the revocation of the arrest.
According to the criminal procedure code, the four were heard by the Forlì judge because he is only competent regarding the validation of the arrest and the precautionary measure (judicial police arrests for suspects must be validated within 48 hours and therefore the review is by the judge where the measures are executed).
Territorial jurisdiction of the crime remains with the Ravenna court (province where the crime was committed), to which the Forlì judge will now forward the records of yesterday morning’s interrogation. The Ravenna judge will now have twenty days to endorse the decision of the Forlì magistrate.
On the other hand, the defense lawyers can now decide what strategy to adopt: whether to immediately go to the Review Court to request a reduction of detention, or wait for the full view of the Ravenna prosecutor’s files (a dossier of several hundred pages). Or wait for the evolution of the investigations, still ongoing. Investigations that currently rely mainly on footage from the camera of a truck parked in the lot of the tragic beating of Musiani. A very long video that the four suspects firmly contest.
