The spectre of the violence surrounding the G8 meeting in Genoa four years ago will return to haunt Italy on Thursday when 47 people, including senior police officers, doctors, nurses and prison guards, go before a judge, accused of violently mistreating arrested demonstrators.
Tensions were heightened on Wednesday when a bomb went off in Sardinia outside the home of one of the defendants, a member of the paramilitary Carabinieri. No one was injured.
The device was similar to one set off when Tony Blair visited the island last summer as guest of Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.
In clashes during the 2001 G8 summit, a demonstrator was killed and hundreds of police and protesters were injured. Anti-globalisation demonstrators accused Italian police of overreacting, while the Italian authorities claimed a minority of protesters had set out to provoke violence.
The preliminary hearing, which is expected to continue until at least late March, will consider events after the street clashes at a detention camp at Bolzaneto near Genoa.
Arrested demonstrators claimed they were repeatedly insulted, kicked, beaten, sprayed with asphyxiating gas, and made to stand for long periods spread-eagled against a wall.
The prosecution claims detainees were forced to shout out chants in praise of Italy’s late fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, and Chile’s notorious former president, Augusto Pinochet. The Genoa-based prosecutors bringing the case say at least one of the songs was anti-semitic.
Charges brought against the defendants range from actual bodily harm to failure to respect international human rights conventions. No torture charges were considered because Italy does not have a law banning it.
Among those facing indictment is General Oronzo Doria, the commander of Italy’s penitentiary guards, who was controversially promoted to his position after being put under investigation. He is accused of failing to prevent the alleged abuses at Bolzaneto.
The head of the medical staff at the camp, Giacomo Toccafondi, is charged with various offences on 102 counts. Among them, he is accused of failing to report use of gas on detainees locked in their cells.
Four other doctors also face indictment, along with two assistant police commissioners. The judge presiding over the hearing will hear the evidence against the defendants before deciding whether they should be sent for a full trial.
Last month 28 police officers were indicted on a range of charges arising from another violent clash during the 2001 G8 summit, when riot squads stormed a school in Genoa that was being used by anti-globalisation demonstrators as a makeshift dormitory and press centre. The beatings they carried out inside left walls and radiators streaked with blood.
Of the 93 people in the Armando Diaz school that night, 28 were taken to hospital, and three were put on the critical list. A Genoa judge later decided that none of the victims had played any part in the violence and looting that was carried out by some demonstrators.
Italy’s Parliament is debating a measure that could lead to many of the charges in the Bolzaneto case being dropped because it would cut the period before an offence was ruled out of time.
Opposition critics claim the bill was drafted specifically to save Mr Berlusconi’s former lawyer from going to prison after his conviction for bribing judges. – Guardian Unlimited Â