A-Infos (en) Italy, "Squaring the 'democracy' circle" - MEDIA: Uproar as top police cleared of attack on Genoa G8 protesters

[justice will never be found in the courts, so this isn't surprising. and btw, 
fuck the British daily The Guardian, for their "backstory" at the end that 
justifies the violence perpetrated by these scumfuck pigs if the "black bloc" 
had actually been in the school, instead of merely "peaceful protesters." -k.]
There was uproar in a Genoa court last night after some of Italy's highest 
ranking police officers, accused of masterminding a savage attack on peaceful 
protesters at the G8 meeting in the city seven years ago, were cleared of the 
charges against them. ---- The area reserved for the public erupted into chants 
of "shame, shame" as the presiding judge finished reading his verdict. The 
mother of one of the victims clambered on to a crash barrier and screamed: 
"We'll have our revenge".

Enrica Bartesaghi, the head of a pressure group formed by victims' relatives, 
told the Guardian: "My daughter was beaten so badly she was taken to hospital. 
She will receive €5,000 [£4,300]. Unfortunately, ours is no longer a civilised 
country. The sentence is an insult [to her]."

The three judges handed out sentences of up to four years to some of the 
operational commanders. But none of them will have to go to jail, because their 
offences will expire under a statute of limitations early next year.

None of the officers who carried out the beatings was a defendant in the trial. 
All were masked, and none wore names or numbers during the raid. Only one has 
ever been identified.

Among those acquitted were Giovanni Luperi, who has since been put in charge of 
the Italian equivalent of MI5, and two of Italy's most senior detectives, 
Francesco Gratteri and Gilberto Calderozzi. Several of the top police officers 
accused in the trial were filmed standing outside the building as the beatings 
proceeded.

Almost 30 people were taken to hospital after the raid, several in comas. An 
Italian judge subsequently ruled that none of those staying at the Armando Diaz 
school had had any part in the intensely violent rioting or looting that marked 
the anti-corporate globalisation protests in Genoa.

A statement issued by some of the victims accused the Italian police of acting 
"outside the democratic order". It added: "That is possible because they know 
they enjoy total impunity, as this sentence confirms."

Mark Covell, from Reading, one of five Britons injured in the attack, said: "The 
evidence was overwhelming. There is no justice here. I feel sorry for Italy."

Evidence was brought by the prosecution that police had planted two petrol bombs 
at the school to try to show that its occupants were violent subversives. But 
only the junior officers who carried the Molotov cocktails on to the premises 
were convicted, and their sentences and convictions have also expired under the 
statute of limitations.

Last night's impassioned scenes came after four years of legal wrangling. 
Preliminary hearings in three cases arising from the most violent of G8 protests 
began in 2004. The first to conclude ended in December last year, when 24 
demonstrators were found guilty of damage to property and looting. They were 
jailed for between five months and 11 years.

In July, 15 police officers and doctors who were on duty at a holding centre 
near Genoa were found guilty of brutally mistreating detainees, including many 
from the Diaz school. The court heard of threatened rapes, sadistic 
maltreatment, and of detainees being forced to bark like dogs and sing 
anti-Jewish songs.

Those convicted of the abuses received sentences of up to five years in jail. 
But, again, none will serve time. The sentences, together with the convictions, 
will be cancelled when the statute of limitations takes effect next year.

Backstory

At least 150 police officers stormed the Armando Diaz school on the night of 
July 21 2001, after three days of violence in Genoa that left more than 200 
people injured and a protester dead. Police chiefs later claimed the school was 
occupied by the violently disruptive Black Bloc faction. If that is what 
rank-and-file officers were told, it may explain the viciousness with which they 
laid into the protesters. Briton Nicola Doherty was hit so hard on an arm with 
which she was shielding her face that her wrist was broken. The attack put 28 of 
93 people arrested in hospital - three of them on the critical list. Mark 
Covell, a volunteer with the Indymedia news network, was unconscious for 14 
hours. He suffered eight broken ribs, a punctured lung and 10 missing or broken 
teeth.
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://ainfos.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en