Prosecutors seek 5- year prison terms for high- ranking police

(ANSA) – Genoa, July 17 – Prosecutors on Thursday asked a Genoa court for total sentences of over 100 years in a trial for police brutality at the G8 summit in 2001.

Charges against 28 police officers who took part in a violent raid at a school used as sleeping quarters by anti-globalisation protestors include grievous bodily harm, planting evidence and wrongful arrest.

Three people were left comatose and 63 had to be taken to hospital after being beaten by police, who burst into the Diaz school in riot gear and arrested 93 protesters, including British, French, German and other non-Italian nationals.

Source: http://ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2008-07-17_117234507.html weiter...

When 200,000 anti-globalisation protesters converged on the Italian city hosting the G8 summit in 2001, all but a handful came to demonstrate peacefully. Instead, many were beaten to a pulp by seemingly out-of-control riot police. But was there something more sinister at play? And will the victims ever see proper justice? Nick Davies reports

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/17/italy.g8 weiter...

Fifteen Italian officials have been convicted of mistreating protesters during the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa. Mark Covell was one of five British anti-globalisation protesters who was injured and has been seeking justice ever since.

"This was not just giving a few hippies a slap around, this was systematic," Mr Covell said.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7507620.stm weiter...

An Italian court has found 15 officials guilty of mistreating protesters following violent demonstrations at G8 meeting in the city of Genoa in 2001.

A judge handed down prison sentences ranging from five months to five years to the accused - who include police, prison officials and two doctors.

Another 30 defendants were cleared of charges, including assault.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7506609.stm weiter...

[Media G8way | Gipfelsoli Infogroup]

Press release, July 15th 2008

• Lawyers criticize judges
• Week of action in Genoa

After nine hours the “Bolzaneto trial” against 45 members of police, jail staff and doctors ended yesterday evening in Genoa. The accused persons were under investigation for the misuse of authority, constraint, abuse, intimidation, and falsification of evidence. 300 demonstrators were arrested during the protests against the G8, most of whom were brought to police barracks that were being used as temporary jails.

Concerned activists documented beatings, affronts, fascist slogans and systematic humiliations during the trial. Due to the fact that the police pretended that most of the police officers on duty at the time could not be identified, only police officers in charge were put on trial. Yet, 30 of the accused were acquitted because of “lack of evidence”. The highest sentence was 5 years and 8 months for the chief of security of the jail, Antonio Biahio Gugliotta. The jail doctor Giacomo Toccafondi, criticized heavily for his brutality, received a sentence of only one year and two months.

The convicted have announced that they will appeal. This means that, according to Italian law, the sentences will be prescribed.

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[Gipfelsoli Infogroup]

Press Release June 25th 2008

• “Race against time”: Court rule against the police in JUly is now in question
• Protests in Italy and Berlin

[Rome | Genoa | Berlin] On Tuesday, under the new coalition government, the Italian Senate passed new and wide-ranging repressive legalislation. Immigration prevention and deportations will now be easier and a DNA Database is to be introduced. Police and army forces will patrol the streets together, for which 2.500 soldiers have been designated. In June there were attacks on Roma in which police were invovled. “Beggar laws” will increase pressure on victims.

The new legislation also means that all trials that began before 2002 will be deferred for one year.

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23 June, 2008

(Rome) Anyone traveling to Italy this year will find a lovely, calm and tranquil country. This June the rolling hills around Rome are unusually green and the waters of the Tiber River slicing through the city are white-capped and swift after abundant rainfall in May and early June. Elegant sidewalk cafés and restaurants are packed. Brightly colored double-decker tour buses glide slowly along the Roman Forum and around the Coliseum. Summer has arrived and the food and wine are good.

So calm is Italy that when the neo-Fascist Defense Minister announced his decision to send army troops to patrol city streets, most people shrugged, more absorbed by the European Soccer Cup and making a living than the devastation of political-social Italy. People act as if what is happening here were happening in another country or on another continent. Not in Italia. Only isolated skeptics here and there, like the marginalized Left opposition, ask ironically when the first curfew will be posted. And, one might add, how long before martial law arrives?

Source: http://www.countercurrents.org/stewart230608.htm weiter...

Enduring Silvio Berlusconi’s behaviour last week was like “sitting through a film you’ve seen before”, said Senator Anna Finocchiaro, the parliamentary head of Italy’s Democratic party. Not two months after starting his third stint as prime minister, Mr Berlusconi is in a familiar controversy.

The Senate is finishing work on a package of security laws on which Mr Berlusconi campaigned. An amendment added by his supporters and passed on Wednesday would suspend trials for all but the most serious crimes that took place before mid-2002.

Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5dbb0ccc-3ec8-11dd-8fd9-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1 weiter...

The Republic – G8, first final sentence Genoa, June 7, 2008

Translated from La Reppublica

She’s always been the first one, Valerie. The first to enter into the Red Zone. The first to be arrested by the police during those days of July. And the first to wind up in the hell of Bolzaneto. As of yesterday, she is now the first to have completed the third – and definitive – court of appeal for a legal hypothesis of a crime linked to the G8. The Court of Appeal has decided, and the conviction and sentence remanded echo the paradox. Because Valerie Vie must spend five months in prison for that half-step forward - toward liberty, she says – after one of the infamous walls had alread y opened.

Source: email weiter...

Dear friends,

During the month of July, most probably on 21st or 22nd, the sentence concluding the Bolzaneto trial should be announced.

The public prosecutors are asking to sentence 44 people that include (high-ranking) officials and officers from the Police Force, from the Carabinieri (military police), from the prison guard service, doctors and nurses, all accused of acts of violence inflicted on those arrested or simply detained, from Friday 20th to Sunday 22nd July 2001 in the barracks at Genova Bolzaneto.

Source: email weiter...