At 2001’s G8 Summit in Genoa police confronted anti-globalization demonstrators

An Italian court has confirmed the convictions of 15 police officers, prison guards and doctors who were found guilty of the ill-treatment of detainees in the Bolzaneto detention facility in Genoa in 2001 during protests against the G8 summit. The court also overturned the initial acquittals of another 29 people who have now been convicted of ill-treatment.

The Genoa court upheld the July 2008 convictions when the 15 were sentenced to between five months and five years imprisonment for their role in the ill-treatment of detainees.

“Although the motives of the judgment are not yet known, the fact that the appeal judge broadly upheld the outcome of the previous trial confirms that grave human rights violations were committed nearly a decade ago,” said Halya Gowan, director of Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Programme.

(ANSA) - Genoa, October 7 - Former national police chief Gianni De Gennaro was acquitted here on Wednesday on charges that he pressured a ex-Genoa police chief to commit perjury in a trial over police brutality at the Group of Eight (G8) summit in 2001.
Also acquitted on the same charges was the ex-head of the Genoa branch of Digos security police, Spartaco Mortola. The prosecution had asked for a two-year sentence for De Gennaro, who is currently the head of Italy`s intelligence services, and 16 months for Mortola.
Both men were accused of persuading Francesco Colucci, chief of police in Genoa in 2001, to change his testimony about a night raid on the Diaz school, which was being used by G8 protestors as sleeping quarters.

The European Court of Human Rights has today notified in writing its Chamber judgment1 in the case of Giuliani and Gaggio v. Italy (application no. 23458/02). The Court held
- unanimously that there had been no violation of Article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights as regards the excessive use of force;
- by five votes to two that there had been no violation of Article 2 as regards the State's positive obligations to protect life;
- by four votes to three that there had been a violation of Article 2 as regards the procedural obligations under that Article; and
- unanimously that there had been no violation of Article 38 (examination of the case).
Under Article 41 (just satisfaction) of the Convention, the Court awarded the first two applicants 15,000 euros (EUR) each and the third applicant EUR 10,000 for non-pecuniary damage.

By Duncan Kennedy

Protests at the G8 summit in Genoa, Italy, in 2001
Dozens of officers have faced trial over their conduct during the protests

An Italian police officer who shot dead an anti-globalisation protester in 2001 acted in self-defence, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.

Mario Placanica was one of thousands of security force members who fought with demonstrators at the G8 summit.

But the court ruled the Italian government failed to carry out a full investigation of the incident.

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - The European Court of Human Rights condemned Italy on Tuesday for failing to carry out a thorough investigation into the death of a protestor who was shot by police at a G8 summit in Genoa in 2001.

The court awarded 40,000 euros ($57,160) compensation to the protestor's family. But it decided unanimously that the police officer had not used disproportionate force when he fired during an attack by demonstrators on his vehicle.

For those who might be interested, there are two new video “products” from the Genoa Legal Forum Secretariat. More info: www.processig8.org

In the course of these last years the GLF legal secretariat has worked on and presented in court technical video analysis on the reconstruction of some of the events that took place in Genoa in 2001. This expert report has included working through 500 hours of film, 15000 photographs, 1800 radio communications and telephone calls (police and carabinieri), the live programs of Radio GAP and Radio Popolare and the telephone register of the police officers involved in the Diaz raid. A chronology of certain events has been reconstructed second by second.

Statewatch Analysis

Italy: Making sense of the Genoa G8 trials and aftermath by Yasha Maccanico examines the trials of the protestors and the police and their outcomes:

Download at http://www.statewatch.org/analyses/no-77-genoa-aftermath.pdf

This analysis seeks to identify some of the key points for understanding the outcome of the trials involving demonstrators and police officers in relation to events during the G8 summit in Genoa in July 2001, and to investigate the implications for public order policing and the right to demonstrate.

Campaigners have expressed dismay that a policeman acquitted of brutality last month will be in charge of security at next year's G8 summit in Italy.

Franco Gratteri was one of those in charge during the 2001 G8 meeting in Genoa, which was marred by violence.

While he was cleared of related charges, colleagues were convicted.

Invite to the mass media and anyone with an interest in the La Maddalena G8 protests:

After over seven years of investigation and trial process concerning the indictment of 76 italian police following events during the Genova G8 2001 summit. During July 2008, thirteen police from prison, GOM MOBILE, Carabineri and two medical staff were convicted of abuse of authority, abuse and torture as the Diaz sister trial, Bolzaneto came to an end.

In town for the verdict of the trial of 29 police and officals invovled in a planning and executing the raid on the Scuola Diaz in Genoa, 2001, probably the biggest human rights abuse in the EU in recent decades. The raid was on the 5 storey school housing the indymedia centre and hundreds of protestors during the 2001 G8 mobilisation.

It was prepared months in advance and probably OK'd with the American security contingent, though the official and unchallenged story is that the country's top police units and heads of various national security services convened and mobilised at an hour's notice, in repsonse to some stones thrown in the vicinity.

On Thursday, November 13, 2008, was closed the last of the three large first-level trials for the events tied to the protests against the G8 of July 2001 in Genoa.

The trial against 29 police officers for the raid on the Diaz School, which ended in 93 people illegally arrested and 61 of those seriously injured, ended with an exemplary sentence: sixteen acquitted and thirteen convicted. The court decided to convict only the operatives and to acquit those who planned the mean-spirited and vindictive operation on all charges.
To absolve the liars who, to justify a butchery, decided to plant two molotov petrol bombs in the afternoon between the siezed objects, to lie about the knifing of an agent, to cover each other by spinning tales of incredible resistance on the part of the occupants of the school and sacking the media center across the street.

da www.ilmanifesto.it

SHAMELESS

The day after the Italian court whitewashed the police attack on the occupants of the Diaz school, the victims are still furious. The foreigners depart in haste, swearing they never want to set foot in Italy again. And the Italians try to react "Our battle in the courts is not over yet".
Never again in Italy. So swore some foreign victims of police violence in the Diaz school in Genoa as they caught the night train or early morning train over the border after thanking their lawyers and legal teams yesterday.

La Republicca: Fotos

• Guardian: No justice in Genoa
• Jurist: Italy court acquits majority of police charged in 2001 G8 summit raid case
• euronews (mit Video): Italian police officers jailed for Genoa violence
• Channel 4: Genoa G8 2001 trials
• BBC: Top Italy G8 riot police cleared
• Guardian: Uproar as top police cleared of attack on Genoa G8 protesters
• Javno: Italy Court To Rule On G8 Police Brutality In 2001
• Telegraph: Italian police officers convicted of violence at 2001 G8 Genoa Summit
• Reuters: Italy court clears top police of Genoa G8 violence
• AP: 13 Italian police convicted of G-8 violence
• dpa: Italian court acquits top police officials over violence at 2001 G8_

Genoa, 13/11/2008

First of all we would like to thank all those who for the last seven years have followed the trials. Without the outstanding work of the legal team we would not have come this far. The same is to be said for all those friends here in Italy who have supported us, welcomed us and given us their hospitality every time we have come here. Their solidarity has helped us overcome our own helplessness in regard to what happened. One of the truly positive things that has come out of this experience is the links and political cooperation between us all.

An Italian court has convicted 13 police officers of violence against antiglobalisation protesters at the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa, when demonstrators were beaten up, spat on and threatened with rape.

By Nick Squires in Rome

After a four year trial, the court acquitted 16 other, more senior officers of the abuses, to cries of "shame, shame" from activists awaiting the verdict.

The 13 convicted policemen were found guilty of inflicting violence and abusing their powers during a predawn raid on a school where protesters, including British activists, were staying in Genoa during the Group of Eight meeting.

GENOA, Italy (Reuters) - An Italian court on Thursday found 13 police officers guilty of beating protesters at the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001, but acquitted 16 others, including the most senior police officials.

The convicted policemen were sentenced to between one month and four years in prison. But a lengthy appeals process and a statute of limitations which annuls sentences after a given period of time mean that none are actually likely to spend any time in prison.

Genoa, Italy - An Italian court handed down sentences Thursday in Genoa against 13 police officers accused of violence against protestors at the 2001 Group of Eight summit in the city but acquitted several high-ranking officers in the case.

Shouts of 'shame, shame!' from many of those in the courtroom's public gallery accompanied the late evening reading of the verdicts and sentences, which came after some 11 hours of deliberations by judges.

Among those attending the evening court session were people who were beaten when police raided a school that was being used as a headquarters by anti-globalization groups during the G8.

On 13th November the trial will begin in the morning around 9h30, then the judges will retire to their chamber to decide the sentence. In the last two big trials (against the 25 italian activists and police barracks Bolzaneto) this took all day. The final verdict will probably be announced late in the evening.

The Diaz raid by the police at the end of the G8 summit took 93 illegal arrests and 61 injured activists, some of them very heavily. All of them went to hospital. The police falsified proofs for the trial (like molotov cocktails). 29 policemen are accused, because officially only the leaders were able to be identified. The prosecutor demands 110 years of prison in total.

27.10

Preliminary hearing against former Genova police chief Colucci for false testimony in the Diaz trial and former police chief DeGennaro for pushing him to do so. Main evidence: the telephone of Mortola (former Genova digos chief and defendant in Diaz trial) was tapped as part of the investigation on the molotov bottles disappearance. In one call Colucci told him he had adjusted his testimony as “the chief” wanted.
The preliminary hearings will decide whether a trial will be opened against them.