(ANSA) - Rome, October 30 - A bid to obtain a fresh parliamentary enquiry into alleged violence by Italian police at a 2001 G8 summit foundered on Monday when two government parties joined the opposition in voting against it.
The vote in the House constitutional affairs committee sank leftists' hopes of getting a new enquiry under way into the events at the Genoa summit, which took place when centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi was premier. A parliamentary investigation carried out while Berlusconi was in power cleared the police and was branded a whitewash by leftwing parties then in the opposition.
The new enquiry - which the centre left promised in its 2006 election platform - was to have focused on a police raid which took place on July 21, 2001, when 150 police in riot gear burst into a school where anti-globalisation protestors were quartered.
Police arrested 93 protesters including British, French, German and other non-Italian nationals. Sixty of the protestors had to be taken to hospital after the raid and three people were left comatose, including a freelance British journalist, Marc Covell.
A trial into the Diaz school case, in which 29 police officers are defendants, began in April 2005 and is still going on.
In June this year a top policeman changed his earlier testimony and said he had witnessed police brutality during the raid on the Diaz school. He called the scene when he arrived there "carnage".
Centre-right MPs welcomed the vote against a new enquiry saying an attempt by "ultraleftists" to put the police on trial had been thwarted.
The SAP police union said the vote had "done Italy a great service".
The Italy of Values party, one of the two centrist parties which voted with the opposition, said it had done so because the enquiry envisaged would have been "one-sided", ignoring violence committed by protestors.
Oliviero Diliberto, whose Italian Communists' Party had pushed hard for the new enquiry, said it was shocking that allies did not want to "find the truth about something that ended one life and bloodied the streets of Genoa".
More than 300,000 demonstrators converged on Genoa for the G8 summit.
During two days of subsequent mayhem, one protestor was shot dead while attacking a Carabinieri policeman, shops and businesses were ransacked and hundreds of people injured in clashes between police and demonstrators.
According to protesters inside the Diaz school, they were brutally attacked by the police for no reason.
The police instead maintain that the protesters were harbouring dangerous weapons and resisting arrest and that they were forced to defend themselves.
All charges against the demonstrators were subsequently dropped while the police stand accused of planting evidence against them including two molotov cocktails and falsely accusing them of violence.
In a separate strand of the trial, judges are soon to reach their verdict on 25 protestors accused of causing mayhem and destroying property during the Genoa summit.
Last week, a lawyer acting for the state asked for a total of 2.5 million euros in damages for the stain on the national image and urged the court to hand down prison sentences totalling 225 years.
The new enquiry - which the centre left promised in its 2006 election platform - was to have focused on a police raid which took place on July 21, 2001, when 150 police in riot gear burst into a school where anti-globalisation protestors were quartered.
Police arrested 93 protesters including British, French, German and other non-Italian nationals. Sixty of the protestors had to be taken to hospital after the raid and three people were left comatose, including a freelance British journalist, Marc Covell.
A trial into the Diaz school case, in which 29 police officers are defendants, began in April 2005 and is still going on.
In June this year a top policeman changed his earlier testimony and said he had witnessed police brutality during the raid on the Diaz school. He called the scene when he arrived there "carnage".
Centre-right MPs welcomed the vote against a new enquiry saying an attempt by "ultraleftists" to put the police on trial had been thwarted.
The SAP police union said the vote had "done Italy a great service".
The Italy of Values party, one of the two centrist parties which voted with the opposition, said it had done so because the enquiry envisaged would have been "one-sided", ignoring violence committed by protestors.
Oliviero Diliberto, whose Italian Communists' Party had pushed hard for the new enquiry, said it was shocking that allies did not want to "find the truth about something that ended one life and bloodied the streets of Genoa".
More than 300,000 demonstrators converged on Genoa for the G8 summit.
During two days of subsequent mayhem, one protestor was shot dead while attacking a Carabinieri policeman, shops and businesses were ransacked and hundreds of people injured in clashes between police and demonstrators.
According to protesters inside the Diaz school, they were brutally attacked by the police for no reason.
The police instead maintain that the protesters were harbouring dangerous weapons and resisting arrest and that they were forced to defend themselves.
All charges against the demonstrators were subsequently dropped while the police stand accused of planting evidence against them including two molotov cocktails and falsely accusing them of violence.
In a separate strand of the trial, judges are soon to reach their verdict on 25 protestors accused of causing mayhem and destroying property during the Genoa summit.
Last week, a lawyer acting for the state asked for a total of 2.5 million euros in damages for the stain on the national image and urged the court to hand down prison sentences totalling 225 years.
Comments
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Mark Covell gives his view.
31.10.2007 23:35
speaking from home, Mark Covell said," with the refusal of the diaz parliamentary inquiry, fini is clear now to push prodi out of the way(and berlusconi) and run for government. Fini will control events at La maddalena in 2009. These are dark days for democracy in italy and for the Prodi government. italy has not seen it as important to reform the police so Diaz would never happen again. Worse, the police defendants are still on duty and still able to wield great influence behind the scenes of government. there is a cancer of corruption and human rights abuse at the center of italy."
he further added,
"The Parliamentary inquiry has been precisely restricted to events surrounding Diaz and not the entire G8 because of financial cost. The inquiry is not supposed to begin work until the spring of 2008 when finally all the facts of Diaz can be presented. It was never designed to put the police on trial again but to arrive at a few conclusions of reform for the police services. Myself and maybe a few other plaintiffs are prepared to meet SAP police union officials to discuss these reforms with lawyers present. I also want to meet Luciano Violante to discuss the diaz raid."
He was offended by accusations by the right wing that he was a 'Ultra leftist'. He said "Fini should think again about who he is dealing with."
Asked about what plans he had, he said,"i am leaving for Genova again soon and i will have meetings with my lawyers about appealing the parliamentary inquiry vote. I also have to concentrate on the trial itself. Diaz is reaching a very crucial stage. We are getting much closer to the truth now. I fear the demo in genoa over the issue of the 25 trial will be much larger now because of the parliamentary inquiry defeat and that the police may attack."
Nessuno
It's always been like that..
01.11.2007 08:30
But what would you expect from a country founded by Freemasons and rune by the Mafia ?
A country where "beyond reasonable doubt" does not exist in a court of law, if you remember
during the trial or as part of the farce concerning the death of Carlo Giuliani, the demonstrator
gunned down at the G8 demo. At one stage the learned gentlemen conducting the farce were
discussing the "possibility" that the bullet that killed Carlo had been fired into the air riccocheted
off a stone, thrown by "qualcuno", which then went on to hit Carlo.
There is nothing new here all of the major trials or inquiries over the last twenty years ended like this.
I say ended but in effect they just grind to a halt there is never any real out come just a series of
well publicized theories and contra theories.
It's a pretty much accepted that the Italian state or government / Mafia / P2 or whatever, were responsible
for the attacks on for instance Bologna railway station, and that the Red Brigades were also state funded.
If you want to go into the more conspiracy angle Calvi and the Banco Ambrosiano is a good place to start.
There have been any number of twists and turns in that one, including a feature film, certainly the City of London
(masonic lodge) were right up to their necks in the UK's part of the cover up.
The Monster of Florence (birth place of freemasonry) is another very good example of a total farce, 16 young couples, murdered at various lovers lanes around San Casciano, some old farmer dude was found tried and found guilty on the grounds that he worked alone, then it turns out that the local postman was the lookout
and there were other local yocals involved. They cut out the girls sexual organs which have never (of course)
been found. Florence is a well known hot spot for Esoteric activity and there are plenty of rumours of Sects
and masonic involvement. No serious inquiry but seriously muddied waters, one thing is for sure somebody
in Florence needed a regular supply of womans genitalia.
Just a couple of examples because if you check it out it's almost the norm, serious criminals don't go to prison in Italy. Did you really think that justice would be done on the G8 police atrocities ?
It's pretty obvious that Italy is a third world country with all the punters dressed up as film stars, don't get me wrong I have nothing against Italian people, some of my best friends are Italian and they agree with me.
They don't lay tarmac on the roads in Italy to repair the road or make it better they do it (all the time) because they make money, you don't send your kids to school in Italy to educate them it's just another business scam, they change the school books every single year, it is part of an an on going "anti trust" inquiry
but no one will ever be punished. The latest big scandal to hit the news media is the WHY NOT saga
involving magistrate Luigi de magistris, he was investigating a scam involving the whole of the regional
government of Calabria, where billions of euro's of public funds were funneled through a masonic lodge
in San Marino to top politicians.
The prime Minister Romano Prodi was caught on a wire tap and the Justice minister is also involved.
The last few weeks the magistrate has been doing interviews on TV and the whole thing has already
become farcical, just what every one expects.
Corruption is the norm, by the time they actually start any given work over half the money is missing
so they have to cut costs by using lower priced materials, they probably have the same problems
with a White Wash, when they find that someone has legged it with the funds needed to buy the white
paint and brushes. Thats why everything is so flakey.
qualcheduno
Links: "latest news on Genoa"
02.11.2007 04:03
17 november 2007 - Genova - Demo
"Did you really think that justice would be done on the G8 police atrocities ? "
Yes, I live also for that!
Now a question for you, qualcuno:
you said
"It's pretty obvious that Italy is a third world country"
so why is italy in the G8?... is it just for the food?
((i))
n((i))uno