FREE Marcus Covell

Listen to IMC journalist Marcus Covell's first interview since being brutally beaten by Italian police at:

pnm://rm.bbc.co.uk/radio4/live/today4_20010726.ra?title="Exclusive! The
first interview with the British protestor still in a Genoa
hospital"&start="00:08:52.8"&end="00:16:10"

DEMAND THAT THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT IMMEDIATELY:

--Release Marcus Covell from custody,

--Remove all restrictions on his freedom of movement,

--Remove all impediments to his ability to freely communicate with anyone, and

--Transport him safely out of Italy, at the expense of the Italian government which is responsible for his condition, and accompanied by appropriate medical care and an independent observer of his choice.

Background:

IMC journalist Marcus Covell was illegally, without provocation, and entirely without basis, brutally beaten by Italian police during its Saturday night raid on Genoa Social Forum and IMC headquarters. Denied prompt medical treatment for critical, life-threatening injuries, he miraculously survived and was then kept incommunicado for days in hospital under armed guard and trumped-up charges, most recently thrown out by an Italian judge. Details are abundantly available via the Independent Media Center and its affiliates at  http://www.indymedia.org.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights specifies the following basic human rights which are among those denied Marcus Covell:

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.

Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

See  http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html.

WE AGREE with the UDHR that "disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people."

WE DEMAND that the government of Italy immediately comply with internationally recognized basic human rights standards, and that the government of Italy expedite Covell's return to safety.