Interior Minister Angelino Alfano
said Tuesday that he would not allow the approval of a torture
law that specifically targets the police.
"We have battled to stop the conception of a torture felony
against the police," Alfano said.
"One thing is having the crime of torture, another is that
the measure specifically hits the police".
The issue has been on the agenda since April, when the
European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) condemned Italy for
police brutality in a July 2001 raid on anti-globalization
protestors at the Genoa G8.
The court condemned Italy not only for what happened to
the demonstrators during the infamous raid on the Diaz school,
but also because it said the country lacks appropriate
legislation to punish the crime of torture even though it
ratified a UN convention on torture in 1988.
Premier Matteo Renzi's government has pledged to fill this
vacuum.
But Alfano said Tuesday that a new torture law must not a
stick to hit Italy's police forces with, arguing they were clean
and that the Daiz raid was a "closed chapter".
"We do not intend to disarm the police, not in terms of
their instruments, nor in term so their spirit," Alfano told a
meeting of police unions.
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