Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Italy: G8 2001 police brutality culprits won't go to jail

Genova, 2001: 11 years later, a bitter sentence

On the 5th of July the Italian Supreme Court convicted thirteen police heads involved in the brutal raid at the Diaz-Pertini and Diaz-Pascoli schools of the 21st of July 2001. Most of them, who were previously cleared, received convictions of up to five years, even though others have been now cleared because of the 10-years-time limit that Italian law sets on trials. After eleven years, this is the very first time in which high ranking policemen have been convicted for their brutality during the anti-G8 protests in Genova. However, none of them will ever go to jail; instead, they will only be suspended from duty (Italy’s Statute of limitations) for the next five years.

The Diaz schools were used by protesters in order to do their own counter-information and, eventually, to accommodate people at night. On the night of the 21st of July a group of 400 policemen (whose names are still unknown) broke into the buildings, indiscriminately beating up those people who were inside, and leaving around 90 injured and a British journalist, whose struggle is revealing, in a coma. During the night, 75 people were moved to the nearby police station of Bolzaneto, where they were beaten again.

... full story at Struggles in Italy

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