Prosecutors demand the dismissal of 222 claims made by demonstrators asking for justice after being badly beaten.
Marco Preve
Prosecutors demand the dismissals of claims made following the clashes that occurred during the 2001 G8. In these days lawyers received requests for dismissal of 222 claims made by as many demonstrators asking for justice after being badly beaten or denounced or arrested without a reason or on the basis of false charges.
Paradoxically, these requests were forwarded by the very three prosecutors who dedicated ten years to individuating the responsible for the biggest violation of rights that has ever taken place in Italy: the storming of the Diaz school and the facts occurred in the police barracks of Bolzaneto.
In their request for dismissal, which have been submitted in the last hours, public prosecutors Patrizia Petruzziello, Francesco Cardona Albini and Vittorio Ranieri Miniati explain they came to this conclusion after being engaged for so many years in the preparation of much more serious cases such as those concerning the Diaz school, Bolzaneto and two incidents that occurred in piazza Manin. During these investigations prosecutors had also to take charge of tasks usually undertaken by the judicial police.
The three prosecutors, therefore, state that they did not have the possibility to work on these investigations, which would require huge efforts.
According to the defendants’ lawyers, today some of the cases would not have been dismissed if several years ago prosecutors had distributed the many files in a different way. However this is just hypothesis.
What is certain is that dozens of episodes of abuse remain unaccounted for. In the days that followed the summit of July 2001, as the scandals concerning the massacres perpetrated in the Diaz school and the Bolzaneto barracks broke out, a great number of demonstrators were making claims for having been beaten in the street or for having been notified false report and warrants of arrest.
One of the few cases of street violence that reached the court concerns an incident that occurred in piazza Manin. In March Luca Cinti, an officer of the mobile unit of Bologna, was sentenced to two years and put on bail for making false statements during the trial concerning four policemen who illegally arrested two Spanish students during the G8. After the investigation on the case carried out by prosecutor Francesco Albini Cardona came to an end, the four policemen were sentenced to four years each by the court of cassation.
In 2010 the judges in charge of the appeal trial had submitted the files concerning Cinti’s alleged false testimony. The policeman spoke of two people resisting arrest during street clashes. According to the judges ‘there was no other arrest in piazza Manin besides that of the two Spaniards.’ The judges had decided: ‘It is not true that the arrest of the two Spaniards occurred in a context of clashes between demonstrators and police. CCTV footage shows clearly that the arrested people were approaching police unarmed.’
8th June 2013
Marco Preve
Prosecutors demand the dismissals of claims made following the clashes that occurred during the 2001 G8. In these days lawyers received requests for dismissal of 222 claims made by as many demonstrators asking for justice after being badly beaten or denounced or arrested without a reason or on the basis of false charges.
Paradoxically, these requests were forwarded by the very three prosecutors who dedicated ten years to individuating the responsible for the biggest violation of rights that has ever taken place in Italy: the storming of the Diaz school and the facts occurred in the police barracks of Bolzaneto.
In their request for dismissal, which have been submitted in the last hours, public prosecutors Patrizia Petruzziello, Francesco Cardona Albini and Vittorio Ranieri Miniati explain they came to this conclusion after being engaged for so many years in the preparation of much more serious cases such as those concerning the Diaz school, Bolzaneto and two incidents that occurred in piazza Manin. During these investigations prosecutors had also to take charge of tasks usually undertaken by the judicial police.
The three prosecutors, therefore, state that they did not have the possibility to work on these investigations, which would require huge efforts.
According to the defendants’ lawyers, today some of the cases would not have been dismissed if several years ago prosecutors had distributed the many files in a different way. However this is just hypothesis.
What is certain is that dozens of episodes of abuse remain unaccounted for. In the days that followed the summit of July 2001, as the scandals concerning the massacres perpetrated in the Diaz school and the Bolzaneto barracks broke out, a great number of demonstrators were making claims for having been beaten in the street or for having been notified false report and warrants of arrest.
One of the few cases of street violence that reached the court concerns an incident that occurred in piazza Manin. In March Luca Cinti, an officer of the mobile unit of Bologna, was sentenced to two years and put on bail for making false statements during the trial concerning four policemen who illegally arrested two Spanish students during the G8. After the investigation on the case carried out by prosecutor Francesco Albini Cardona came to an end, the four policemen were sentenced to four years each by the court of cassation.
In 2010 the judges in charge of the appeal trial had submitted the files concerning Cinti’s alleged false testimony. The policeman spoke of two people resisting arrest during street clashes. According to the judges ‘there was no other arrest in piazza Manin besides that of the two Spaniards.’ The judges had decided: ‘It is not true that the arrest of the two Spaniards occurred in a context of clashes between demonstrators and police. CCTV footage shows clearly that the arrested people were approaching police unarmed.’
8th June 2013
