A judge in Genoa on Monday ordered a full trial for 28 officers allegedly involved in a brutal mass beating of demonstrators during the G8 summit three years ago.
Almost 100 people, including five Britons, were injured after police, carabinieri and revenue guards stormed a school in Genoa that was the makeshift headquarters of an umbrella protest group. Sixty two people were taken from the Diaz school to hospital, three of them in coma. Several are still receiving medical and psychiatric treatment.
The raid followed violent clashes between police and demonstrators in which one protester was shot dead and hundreds of police were injured.
Among those indicted were several officers holding senior positions in their respective forces or at the interior ministry. They included Francesco Gratteri, who has been promoted since the Diaz school raid to become the head of the police’s anti-terrorist units.
The rank and file officers who dealt out the beatings were not charged because they could not be identified. They entered the Diaz school wearing masks and without any identification on their uniforms.
”A trial is in the interests of everyone and, above all, the police,” said the interior minister, Giuseppe Pisanu. He added: ”I am sure the police will be able to confront and overcome even this test.”
Ermete Realacci of the centre-left Margherita party said: ”The very serious events of that night still weigh on the civil conscious of Italy. It is essential for the credibility of the state, the police and the authorities in general to clear up what happened.”
Richard Parry, a lawyer representing two of the British victims, said: ”We are very pleased that all the defendants have been indicted. We hope that there will be justice for the victims at the end of the day. My clients are quite happy to go to Italy to give evidence.”
Most of the defendants in the full trial, which is due to begin in April, have been charged with aiding and abetting grievous bodily harm. Some, however, have been additionally charged with dishonestly trying to justify the raid.
The police originally claimed they had found Molotov cocktails at the school. But, according to the prosecution, they were taken there by a senior officer, the then assistant deputy commissioner of Rome, Pietro Troiani.
Police also produced a slashed coat as evidence that one of the officers had been attacked by a protester with a knife. After conducting their own investigation, prosecutors concluded this too was faked. – Guardian Unlimited Â