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Genoa G8 Diaz Raid - Trial May be Cancelled by Berlusconi Law Change

How can berlusconi get away with this? | 08.10.2005 13:08 | G8 2005 | Genoa | Globalisation | Indymedia | Repression | World

Amazing as it may seem, the court trial in Italy over the brutal police raid on the Diaz school during the 2001 Genoa G8 protests, may be effectively cancelled.

The enquiry and trial of police accused of committing brutal acts is due to start this week, on Friday 14th October. Yet due to a new law currently going through the Italian parliament it may never conclude, meaning that no one will be punished.

La Repubblica newspaper in Rome has reported that the change in the law being promoted by Berlusconi, will cut in half the amount of time within which convictions for many different offences will be prescribed. La Republica reports that this will effect the two main two cases against the police in relation to Genoa G8 2001.

Peter Popham writing from Rome for The Independent says the new law will render the diaz trial "null and void".

The change in the law is widely believed to be yet another attempt by Berlusconi to change the countries law to protect himself and his friends from prosecutions and prison sentances.

==================================

Here the article from the independent is reproduced for note:

Berlusconi 'throws legal system into chaos to save ally'
By Peter Popham in Rome
Published: 08 October 2005
 http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article318026.ece

A new law going through Italy's parliament will result in nearly half the 3,000 cases before the country's highest court of appeal being struck down before the sentences can be confirmed, judges warned this week.

Hundreds of serious crimes will go unpunished and many whose sentences have already been confirmed by a lower appeals court will walk free.

Many other cases that are in an earlier phase will also be affected, including the brutal attack by riot police on activists and journalists sleeping in the Diaz school in Genoa during the G8 meeting of 2001, in which dozens were seriously injured. Several of the victims were British.

Next week the trial of the officers blamed for the violence begins in earnest in Genoa - but the new law is likely to render it null and void. The trial will get under way, but will never finish. No one will be punished.

The Bill has been nicknamed the "Save Previti Law" by opponents of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who claim it is just the latest case in which the media magnate has misused his position to allow him and his friends to dodge justice.

Cesare Previti, 70, who served as minister of defence in Mr Berlusconi's first, short-lived government in 1994 and is now a senator, was for many years one of his lawyers. Two years ago he was convicted of bribing judges in Rome to ensure that a takeover battle in which Mr Berlusconi was engaged before he entered politics was not stymied by the courts. He was found guilty and given an 11-year sentence, reduced to seven years on appeal.

Loyalty to his friends is one of Mr Berlusconi's most remarkable qualities. Many of his closest associates have been with him for decades. He has stood by figures such as Marcello dell'Utri, the founder of his party Forza Italia, who underwent a long trial in Sicily for Mafia association, and made no effort to distance himself when dell'Utri got a nine-year sentence last year.

Mr Berlusconi has gone to huge lengths to save Mr Previti from prison. He has induced his Justice Minister Roberto Castelli to force the "Save Previti Law" through parliament while other matters, including the chaos at the Bank of Italy, remain to be dealt with.

But this week the Court of Cassation spelt out what the new law, which cuts in half the time within which convictions for many different offences will be "prescribed" or struck down, will mean in practice.

The court believes that of 3,365 cases pending, as many as 1,652 may be killed if the Bill becomes law. They include cases of manslaughter, corruption, embezzlement and family abuse. Nearly 90 per cent of corruption cases before the court will be struck down. "We will be able to finish our work before lunch," was one judge's sardonic comment.

Rome's La Repubblica newspaper has been examining the consequences of the new law and reports that two of the trials involving excesses committed by riot police in Genoa are among those likely to be killed off by it.

Other notorious cases for which justice will now never be done include the collapse of a block of flats in Rome in 1998 in which 27 people died, four of them children. Two men have been convicted and sentenced, but thanks to the new law the convictions will die before they can be confirmed by Court of Cassation. A major case of corruption in the awarding of contracts for building Italy's high-speed railway, in which 30 people are charged, and the defrauding of 100 families in Rome, many of whom lost all their savings, in a housing scam, may also be affected.

Mr Castelli claimed that the data cited by opponents of the Bill was "untrustworthy", and insisted it was "a good law". But magistrates condemned it as "a permanent crypto-amnesty".

A new law going through Italy's parliament will result in nearly half the 3,000 cases before the country's highest court of appeal being struck down before the sentences can be confirmed, judges warned this week.

Hundreds of serious crimes will go unpunished and many whose sentences have already been confirmed by a lower appeals court will walk free.

Many other cases that are in an earlier phase will also be affected, including the brutal attack by riot police on activists and journalists sleeping in the Diaz school in Genoa during the G8 meeting of 2001, in which dozens were seriously injured. Several of the victims were British.

Next week the trial of the officers blamed for the violence begins in earnest in Genoa - but the new law is likely to render it null and void. The trial will get under way, but will never finish. No one will be punished.

The Bill has been nicknamed the "Save Previti Law" by opponents of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who claim it is just the latest case in which the media magnate has misused his position to allow him and his friends to dodge justice.

Cesare Previti, 70, who served as minister of defence in Mr Berlusconi's first, short-lived government in 1994 and is now a senator, was for many years one of his lawyers. Two years ago he was convicted of bribing judges in Rome to ensure that a takeover battle in which Mr Berlusconi was engaged before he entered politics was not stymied by the courts. He was found guilty and given an 11-year sentence, reduced to seven years on appeal.

Loyalty to his friends is one of Mr Berlusconi's most remarkable qualities. Many of his closest associates have been with him for decades. He has stood by figures such as Marcello dell'Utri, the founder of his party Forza Italia, who underwent a long trial in Sicily for Mafia association, and made no effort to distance himself when dell'Utri got a nine-year sentence last year.

Mr Berlusconi has gone to huge lengths to save Mr Previti from prison. He has induced his Justice Minister Roberto Castelli to force the "Save Previti Law" through parliament while other matters, including the chaos at the Bank of Italy, remain to be dealt with.

But this week the Court of Cassation spelt out what the new law, which cuts in half the time within which convictions for many different offences will be "prescribed" or struck down, will mean in practice.

The court believes that of 3,365 cases pending, as many as 1,652 may be killed if the Bill becomes law. They include cases of manslaughter, corruption, embezzlement and family abuse. Nearly 90 per cent of corruption cases before the court will be struck down. "We will be able to finish our work before lunch," was one judge's sardonic comment.

Rome's La Repubblica newspaper has been examining the consequences of the new law and reports that two of the trials involving excesses committed by riot police in Genoa are among those likely to be killed off by it.

Other notorious cases for which justice will now never be done include the collapse of a block of flats in Rome in 1998 in which 27 people died, four of them children. Two men have been convicted and sentenced, but thanks to the new law the convictions will die before they can be confirmed by Court of Cassation. A major case of corruption in the awarding of contracts for building Italy's high-speed railway, in which 30 people are charged, and the defrauding of 100 families in Rome, many of whom lost all their savings, in a housing scam, may also be affected.

Mr Castelli claimed that the data cited by opponents of the Bill was "untrustworthy", and insisted it was "a good law". But magistrates condemned it as "a permanent crypto-amnesty".

How can berlusconi get away with this?

Comments

Hide the following 6 comments

Would not surprise me.

08.10.2005 13:22

I mean the Scotsman newspaper reported recently that Mario Placanica, the police officer who shot dead Carlo Giuliani during the Genoa G8 protests, is to stand as a candidate for the fascist National Alliance party in next years Italian elections. It's facism, clear and simple.

Pete


Latest La Repubblica Artilce

08.10.2005 13:41

Finirebbe in prescrizione il procedimento contro 28 uomini della polizia
accusati delle violenze alla caserma di Bolzaneto e alla scuola Diaz

Salva-Previti, rischia di saltare il processo per il G8 a Genova

Verrebbe azzerata anche la "Sanitopoli" siciliana: un'amnistia mascherata
di CARLO BONINI
 http://www.repubblica.it/2005/j/sezioni/politica/giuscir/rischiog8/rischiog8.html

ROMA - Tra Genova e Palermo, la legge Cirielli si mangerà un altro pezzo della storia giudiziaria (e non solo) di questi anni. La ferita del G8 resterà aperta. Né le vittime, né gli imputati delle violenze e delle calunnie nella scuola "Diaz", degli abusi nella "galera di transito" di Bolzaneto avranno una sentenza definitiva. In Sicilia, la "sanitopoli" che tra il '93 e il '98 ha infettato il sistema sanitario regionale troverà posto in un archivio il giorno stesso dell'approvazione della legge. Vediamo.

Il processo ai 28 tra dirigenti, funzionari e agenti di polizia imputati per i fatti della "Diaz" si è aperto nell'aprile scorso per essere immediatamente rinviato. Di fatto, entrerà nel vivo del dibattimento dal prossimo martedì. I capi di imputazione - falso, calunnia, lesioni - fotografano quanto accaduto nella notte tra il 21 e il 22 luglio del 2001: il pestaggio indiscriminato cui si abbandonarono gli uomini del reparto mobile di Roma; la prova truccata delle molotov trovate dalla polizia nelle strade di Genova e dalla polizia collocate all'interno della scuola per poter accusare di associazione a delinquere chi nella "Diaz" aveva deciso di dormire quella notte.

Le mosse istruttorie cui pubblica accusa e difesa si preparano dinanzi al tribunale fanno prevedere, oggi, che, dato il numero dei testimoni (centinaia) di cui verrà chiesta la deposizione in aula e quello delle udienze effettive (non più di tre a settimana, salvo fisiologici rinvii), la sentenza di primo grado non arriverà prima della fine del 2007. Per quella data, la Cirielli avrà già cancellato le responsabilità del pestaggio (prescritte nel luglio del 2007) e si preparerà ad estinguere di lì alla metà del 2008 quelle relative al ritrovamento delle molotov (falso e calunnia). Dunque, prima di un eventuale giudizio di appello.

Andrà peggio per Bolzaneto. Qui, i 45 imputati, tra agenti della polizia penitenziaria, carabinieri, poliziotti, medici e infermieri, rispondono di abuso di autorità e, in alcuni casi, delle lesioni inflitte a quanti, fermati nelle strade di Genova, vennero successivamente umiliati fisicamente e psicologicamente nelle gabbie di quel centro di "raccolta e transito". A luglio del 2007, tutti i reati su cui la Procura di Genova ha istruito il processo (oggi alle prime battute del giudizio di primo grado) saranno prescritti dalla Cirielli. Impossibile, dunque, a meno di un dibattimento condotto a tappe forzate e per il quale sono per altro già stati ammessi 400 testimoni, che si arrivi anche soltanto alla sentenza di primo grado.

Alle parti offese delle giornate di Genova - italiani, ma anche molti cittadini europei - qualcuno dovrà dunque spiegare che la giustizia italiana non potrà fare il suo corso perché il tempo è scaduto. Lì, come altrove. Come a Palermo, si diceva all'inizio. Qui, gli oltre settanta imputati nei tre processi che stanno giudicando le responsabilità di quella che è stata battezzata la "sanitopoli" siciliana vedranno prescritti i reati di truffa, corruzione e falso ideologico il giorno stesso dell'approvazione della legge Cirielli. E la luce si spegnerà per sempre. Nessuno, così, pagherà per il baratto che, a metà anni '90, consentì a centinaia di laboratori privati di analisi che non ne avevano titolo di "comprare" funzionari pubblici per essere inseriti negli elenchi delle strutture convenzionate con il servizio sanitario regionale.

Storie a campione di una legge che verrà, appunto. In attesa di altri numeri. Quelli che, dopo lo studio statistico della Cassazione, si stanno raccogliendo in questi giorni in ogni distretto di corte di appello e che l'Associazione nazionale magistrati dovrebbe rendere noti la prossima settimana. Quando forse si saprà, una volta per tutte, quanto costerà agli italiani il salvacondotto di Cesare Previti.

(8 ottobre 2005)

translation?


babelfish translation

08.10.2005 14:28

ROME - Between Genoa and Palermo, the Cirielli law will not only eat an other piece of the judicial history (and) of these years. The wound of the G8 will remain opened. Neither the victims, neither charge you to it of the violences and of the calunnie in the school "the Diaz", of the abuses in the "jail of transit" of Bolzaneto will have one definitive sentence. In Sicily, the "sanitopoli" that between the ' 93 and the ' 98 the regional sanitary system has infected will find place in the archives the same day of the approval of the law. We see. The process to the 28 between leaders, civil employees and police officers charges to you for the facts of "Diaz" has been opened in immediately opens them slid for being sent back. Of fact, it will enter in the alive one of the debate from the next tuesday. The counts of indictment - false, he slanders, lesions - photograph how much happened in the night between the 21 and the 22 July of 2001: the indiscriminate pestaggio which the men of the mobile unit of Rome abandoned themselves; the made up test of the Molotov cocktail found from the police in the roads of Genoa and from the police placed to the inside of the school for being able to accuse of criminal association who in "Diaz" had decided to sleep that night. The movements preliminarys investigation which public prosecution and defense are prepared dinanzi for the court make to preview, today, that, given to the number of the witnesses (hundred) of which it will come not more asked the deposition in classroom and that one for the effective audiences (than three week, but physiological dismissals), the sentence of first degree will not arrive before the aim of 2007. For that date, the Cirielli will have already cancelled the responsibilities of the pestaggio (prescribed in the July of 2007) and it will be prepared to extinguish of lì to the half of the 2008 those relative ones to the ritrovamento of the Molotov cocktail (false and slanders). Therefore, before an eventual judgment of appeal. It will go worse for Bolzaneto. Here, the 45 charge to you, between agents of the penitenziaria police, police officers, policemen, doctors and nurses, answer of authority abuse and, in some cases, of the lesions inflicted to how many, stopped in the roads of Genoa, they came subsequently humiliates physically and psychologically in the cages of that center of "collection and transit to you". To July of 2007, all the crimes on which the Power of attorney of Genoa it has instructd the process (today to first struck of the trial at first instance) will be prescribed from the Cirielli. Impossible, therefore, less than a lead debate to stages forced and for which they are for other already be admitted 400 witnesses, that it is only arrived also to the sentence of first degree. To the parts offenses of the days of Genoa - Italian, but also many European citizens - someone will have therefore to explain that the Italian justice will not be able to make its course because the time is expired. Lì, like elsewhere. Like to Palermo, it was said to the beginning. Here, beyond seventy it charges to you in the three processes that are judging the responsibilities of that it has been christened the "sanitopoli" sicialian will see prescribed the crimes of swindle, ideological false corruption and the same day of the approval of the Cirielli law. And the light will be always extinguished in order. Nobody, therefore, will pay for the applied proceeds swap that, with half years ' 90, concurred with hundred of private laboratories of analyses that of it had not tito it "to buy" civil employees publics for being inserted in list of the operating within the national health service structures with the regional sanitary service. History to champion of a law that will come, exactly. In attended of other numbers. Those that, after the statistical study of the Cassation, they are being collected in these days in every district of Appeals Court and that the National Association of Magistrates would have to render notices the next week. When perhaps it is known, once for all, how much will cost to the Italians the salvacondotto of Cesar Previti. (8 October 2005)

MFI


Justice?

08.10.2005 14:43

What justice? No Fucking Justice.

Makes me SICK!

LnR


Nods head

08.10.2005 18:04

I agree. Their crooked president once again blatantly fiddling the legal system to save his mates (makes a change from his own arse). The sooner this clown is out of the way, the better. But presumably the real concern is that he is merely the tip of an iceberg? People like that don't get to the top on their own.

Boab


Diaz is uneffected, bolzenato may be dismissed.

09.10.2005 23:13

In April 2005, when the first tehnical day for the diaz trial began, the lawyers for both sides had an intensive discussion with the judges to look at all the options and scenario's of the "save previtti law". Diaz is uneffected becasue of the nature of the charges and also who is charged. where as the Bolzaneto trial my suffer this fate. the charges against 47 penitary police, five doctors, a minister and a general will be dismissed because of this law. I saw peter popham tonight and he beleives President Chiampi will not sign the law. Also as people have pointed out 1,500 trials will be dismissed. there will be uproar worldwide and many demonstrations will occur inside italy. also many criminals will be released. i don't know where la repubblica is getting its information but it is 50% wrong. All italian press should know and realise that the Diaz and bolzaneto trial with migrate to the European court of human rights in strasbourg. they don't escape. nor do you, if you are reading this, Gianfranco fini. i am coming for you!

Nessuno UK
- Homepage: http://imc-nessuno.blogspot.com/