Trial Today For 26 Activists In Genoa, Italy
02 Mar 2004 18:51 GMTSupporters have converged upon Genoa, in Liguria, Italy, for today’s mass trial of 26 activists arrested in a coordinated series of 45 home raids across Italy, on December 4, 2002, several of whom have been held in pre-trial detention and house arrest ever since. On the grounds that they were allegedly recognized in photos from the demonstrations, these activists are charged with "devastation and looting" a vague term that carries a penalty of eight to fifteen years. One activist, Gimmy, (Francesco Puglisi) remained in prison awaiting trial for almost a year. In addition to the criminal charges, the activists also face a civil complaint filed by the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Justice, and the President of the Council. The last, unexpected signatory to the civil suit, is the City of Genoa, in a decision unanimously approved by Genoa’s center-left city government, even though two communist city council members, Seggi and Taccani, voted for a motion of shame at the decision. (Multilingual fax to protest the city council decision to file suit against the demonstratorsauf deutsch | neue updaten | mehr | Gipfelsoli | en francais | sur Bolzaneto | temoignages | appel a l’action | Collectif de Soutien aux Inculpes de Genes
A support demonstration is to start at 9 o’clock, in Piazza Alimonda, where Carlo Giuliani was shot on July 20th, 2001, during the Group of Eight summit and counterdemonstrations held in Genoa from July 18-22, 2001. During these demonstrations, over 350 activists were arrested and as many as 500 were injured, many critically wounded. More than 50 activists were arrested after the summit was over, for alleged activity during the G8, and Italian social centers affiliated with independent media have come under repeated attack since the summit. (see Indymedia global features of July-August 2001).
As more and more reports are published of beatings and torture suffered by activists in the Bolzaneto police barracks in the days following their arrests in Genoa, prosecutors are preparing to press charges against 73 high-ranking police officers and prison staff for violations of human rights and falsifying evidence; on February 5,, 2004, the Italian Supreme Court decided that the trial would have to take place in Genoa, denying the defense’s request for a change of venue.
In trials against demonstrators, the most common, and most serious, charges, such as "criminal association" "subversive association", and "devastation and looting", carry penalties of up to 15 years and have their basis in Italy’s anti-mafia law, which appears to be part of an attempt to justify mass arrests and to criminalize groups of activists on the basis of political association. Several Italian activists have already been tried and sentenced on more minor charges, but have not yet been sent to prison.
For the 93 activists beaten and arrested in the Diaz School that activists were using as a place to sleep, all charges have been dropped. Valerie Vie, a 38-year-old French mother of three who came to Genoa as a secretary of ATTAC, had her trial on February 10, 2004; she was charged with assaulting several police officers and destroying public property (the wall surrounding Genoa’s "Red Zone") when she entered the restricted "Red Zone" on July 20, 2001. She will have a second evidentiary hearing on April 23. After the G8 summit, Ms. Vie and two groups within the Genoa Social Forum had filed an appeal against the legitimacy of the Red Zone on constitutional grounds; however, the High Court upheld the Red Zone wall as being necessary to protect "public security". Genoa prosecutor Giancarlo Pellegrino has already announced that he plans to send 50-70 more activists, including the Publixtheatre Caravan, would be prosecuted.
LINKS: Indymedia Italia | Multilingual Legal Updates | Comitato Verità e Giustizia per Genova (Genoa Truth and Justice Committee) | newsgroup | Piazza Carlo Giuliani | Pillola Rossa | Genoa Resistance | Comitato Anarchico di Difesa e Solidarietà Genova
Updates on the trial
newsie 03.Mar.2004 18:23
For more information, see BBC: "Prosecutors take on Genoa police" (Italian prosecutors have requested the indictment of 29 riot police for alleged brutality against protesters at the G8 summit in Genoa three years ago.) and BBC: "Tense start to Genoa riot trial" (Anti-globalisation activists have gone on trial in the Italian city of Genoa, accused of taking part in riots at the G8 summit there three years ago.)
For more english-language Genoa legal updates, see The Genoa Justice Campaign, and The BBC on Genoa.
More links posted
newsie 05.Mar.2004 00:53
Sorry, looks like the links didn't come through when I published them. Genoa Justice Campaign is at http://www.genoajustice.org/ "Tense start to Genoa riot trial" is at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3525699.stm "Prosecutors take on Genoa police" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3529775.stm other BBC articles on Genoa can be found at http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?scope=newsifs&tab=news&q=Genoa
More info from Italy Indymedia
Indymedia Italia 05.Mar.2004 01:52
From
http://italy.indymedia.org/news/2004/02/476707.php
Almost three years after the G8 in Genoa, the truth is starting to
emerge on the tortures and beatings demonstrators were subjected to in Bolzaneto police station. On the 21st of January 2004, the daily genovese paper 'Il Secolo XIX' gave an account of a police officer and a non-commissioned officer of the police penitentiary, who had told the attorney Francesco Lalla (who had been about to close the inquiry) of generalised violence and
abuse carried out on demonstrators that had been arrested. These
declarations implicate the higher echelons - who at the time would have been informed of the facts - such as the police general Oronzo Doria and the magistrate Alfonso Sabella. With this fresh evidence, a crack in the wall of the conspiracy of silence has been opened: the new testimonies of the police officers match those of the demonstrators.
In the meanwhile, the 93 persons beaten up and then arrested at the Diaz school, have been completely discharged: the 3th of february 2004 the magistrate
decided to archive the whole procedure.
Should be coming soon the incrimination for the 73 policemen - mostly high rank ones- that have been recognized guilty from the enqueror attorney, for the violences of Genoa's days. The 5th of february 04, the Highest Court took an important decision about it: this process has to be done in Genoa and not in another town of Italy, like had been requested from the police's lawyers (wich would have meant to start the whole procedure from the beginning).
The 2th of march 2004 it will start the trial against two dozens of
demonstrators. Some of them are accused of heavy crimes (till 15 years of jail) and they risk to become the scapegoats of genoa days. Let's keep working and be informed on Genoa. To not forget what happened there, and to be able to remember it to whom have big responsibilities for it.
more news [in english] -- carlo giuliani -- more stories
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Updates on the trials
Otted 05.Mar.2004 03:39
update of the Genoa trials
http://italy.indymedia.org/news/2004/02/476707.php
http://italy.indymedia.org/news/2002/04/14126.php
http://italy.indymedia.org/news/2003/09/388114.php
http://italy.indymedia.org/news/2003/09/388114.php
http://italy.indymedia.org/news/2003/05/282717.php
http://italy.indymedia.org/news/2003/05/273710.php
http://italy.indymedia.org/features/
The protesters against G8 are to stand trial on 2nd of March in Genoa. 26 persons were accused, based on photos and filmed material of single episodes, of a crime of which people are rarely charged in Italy : devastation and plunder. The penalty? From 8 to 15 years in prison. It is a "limping" preliminary investigation because it separates the "crowd management" from the actions of the demonstrators. All of the charges and accounts on what tens of thousands of people had seen in those days on the streets of Genoa have been archived and so, as lawyer Laura Tartarini explains, Nobody investigated, and at this point noobody will ever investigate - about the direction of public order".
Starting on 4th of December 2002, persons who are to be on trial for the manifestations against G8 in Genoa have been subjected to all sorts of precautionary measures. The most obvious case is that of Gimmy, who has spent almost a year in prison, but many arrive to the trial with the obligation of signing. While the updates and news continue arriving about the accusations against the police, in Genoa there is a break out of declarations and polemics. There were requests for retribution of damages against the 25 protesters from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Defense, the Justice and the Counsel Presidency. The ultimate, unexpected adhesion to the front of vindicators comes from the Commune of Genoa. A decision approved unanimously by the centre-leftist committe and defined by the mayor as "an act that had to be done", but that has caused a split with the Communist Refoundation and bitter tones inside the party itself: two of its assessors have voted yes for the motion of shame. Many have recorded that the Province of Genoa, even if interested in damages, has not filed for retributions. And on the other hand the mayor of Genoa himself has always affirmed that the true damage to the city was the moral damage. On the wake of the trial, an about-turn. On the whole, it is a scenario that makes one fear of the "exemplary" condemnations: 26 persons are risking to become the scapegoat of an entire movement.
Let`s march again for Genoa.
Other multilingual documents:
February 04: policemen who talk
Bolzaneto, testimonies and documents
trial against the police
Carlo Giuliani
Diaz school
more stories
all the latest news (in italian)