AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Public Statement

AI Index: EUR 30/005/2006 (Public)
News Service No: 192
21 July 2006

http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/document.do?id=ENGEUR300052006

FIVE YEARS AFTER THE G8 GENOA POLICING OPERATIONS: ITALIAN AUTHORITIES MUST TAKE CONCRETE ACTION TO PREVENT AND PROSECUTE POLICE BRUTALITY IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES

On the 11th January the witnesses hearings restarted in court for the trial against the policemen who raided the Diaz school on the 21st July 2001, at the end of the G8 protests in Genoa.

During the 19th and the 20th hearings, which took place on the 11th and on the 19th January respectively, several British witnesses recalled their experience in the Diaz school and in the facing media centre.

Forty-five Italian police and medical staff have gone on trial accused of brutality against protesters arrested during the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001.

The case, which opened at a court in Genoa, was adjourned until November. The defendants - which include senior officers from Genoa - deny the charges, including unlawful violence.