GENOA, March 12 - Police officers, prison guards and medical staff accused of abusing protestors during the 2001 Genoa G8 summit have been charged with inhuman and degrading treatment under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Numerous protestors held at the Bolzaneto detention center near Genoa in July 2001 have described the sadistic treatment they received at the hands of officials, including beatings, insults, kicks, punches and threats.

A report by the ANSA newswire suggests that the public prosecutors, Patrizia Petruzziello and Vittorio Ranieri Miniati, opted for the "safer" choice of inhuman and degrading treatment under Article 3 rather than torture owing to "the duration of the treatment in relation to the length of time the detainees were held in the center." At today's preliminary hearing into events at Bolzaneto, for which prosecutors have requested 47 indictments, a 534-page memorial was filed and explained to the preliminary hearing judge, Maurizio De Matteis. Indictments have been requested for 42 regular and high-ranking police officers - 15 from the regular state police, 16 from the penitentiary police and 11 members of the Carabinieri - as well as five medical practitioners, three of whom women.

Prosecutors recalled how "Taline Ender, Massimiliano Spingi and Sanchez Chicarro had chunks of hair lopped off, Giuseppe Azzolina's hand was sprained, Ester Percivati had her head shoved down a Turkish toilet, Marco Bistacchia was forced to crawl around on all fours and bark like a dog and Mohamed Tabbach was beaten with an artificial limb".

They also recalled how guards humiliated Hinrrichs Meyer Thorsten, who was forced to walk around the courtyard wearing a cap depicting the hammer and sickle, with a penis instead of the hammer.

The prosecution quoted a section from the book "Un Anno Di Costituzione Italiana: Art.13" ("A Year Of The Italian Constitution: Article 13") by Andrea Camilleri. Referring to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, Camilleri wrote: "the eye is immediately drawn, not to the dull-witted, sadistic satisfaction of the torturer, but to the man being tortured, reducing him to a thing, an object, an animal: he becomes a training dummy [...] once a man, now just a dog on a leash [....] no longer human, just a trembling piece of flesh offered to wide-open canine jaws".

The statement, divided into five sections, first explores the history of the provisional jail and touches on the 252 transitory staff. This is followed by parts looking at the initial investigations, the organization, the crimes and who was responsible at various levels, the actual perpetrators, and the conclusions.

MANAGEMENT LEVEL - The section dealing with those in charge at Bolzaneto names Deputy Police Chief Alessandro Perugini and Chief Commissioner Anna Poggi for the state police, both of whom are under investigation. A number of individuals from the penitentiary police are mentioned: Coordinating Investigator Alfonso Sabella (against whom charges are being dropped), General Claudio Ricci, General Alfonso Mattiello, former colonel Oronzo Doria (under investigation) and Inspector Antonio Biagio Gugliotta (under investigation). Captains Pasquale Migliaccio, Ernesto Cimino and Bruno Pelliccia are also named, all former members of the now defunct Prison Guards service.

"Obviously the top-ranking officials were not actually standing outside cells guarding the detainees," explained the prosecutors. "However, the duty and power to protect detainees is part of their job, as well as the task of officials with the criminal investigation department. "

MEDICAL AREA - The medical area set up inside the Bolzaneto center should have provided detainees with assistance and help, acting as a kind of safe zone from abuse. Instead, said the prosecution, it became another stage in the process of humiliation.

"It has emerged that encounters between the claimants and the medical personnel occurred in conditions of physical and moral subjection similar to the conditions overall," wrote the prosecution. "It should not be forgotten that triage was taking place at the tent entrance. In practice, this meant immediately after the 'welcome committee', so the doctor was therefore often mistaken for a policeman."

THE CHARGES - The charges include abuse of office, criminal coercion, abuse of authority against detainees or those under arrest, fraud, and the violation of penitentiary regulations and the European Convention on Human Rights.