Diplomats to visit detained G8 Britons

Ananova Story filed: 11:56 Wednesday 25th July 2001

Diplomats are finally to be granted access to five British protesters held by Italian police following the G8 summit in Genoa.

Four of the demonstrators have not been allowed to see consular staff or lawyers since they were seized on Saturday.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said the British Consul in Milan,Alan Reuter, is to visit the Britons later today.

She said: "The consul has just called to say that they have now been given permission to see all five of them.

"As the Italian authorities said to us all along, once they had been seen by the magistrate we would have permission to see them."

The consul will see Britons Richard Moth, 32, from north London,Daniel MacQuillan, 35, and Jonathan Blair, 38, from Newport, at the police centre where they are being held in Pavia, northern Italy.

He will also visit Mr Moth's girlfriend Nicola Doherty, 27, at a separate centre in Voghera, and Mark Covell, 33, from London, who remains in hospital suffering from internal bleeding and broken ribs.

Mr Covell has already been seen once by the consul, on Sunday morning, shortly after he was admitted to hospital.

Two other Britons arrested during the summit, Lawrence Miles, 25,and John Colin Blair, 19, originally from Ballymena, Northern Ireland, were earlier freed by police.

The FO spokeswoman added it was not certain whether the five had yet been seen by the magistrate, but they would have been by the time the consul and his staff get to them.