All 105 prison officers, penitentiary
officials and local health agency officials were sent to trial
Tuesday over a brutal punitive raid on inmates at a prison at
Santa Maria Capua Vetere near Caserta north of Naples on 6
April 2020.
The trial into the violence, which was meted out as punishment
for a riot, will begin on November 7.
Guards allegedly went on a rampage of violence to punish inmates
for rioting.
Overcrowding and COVID fears sparked riots in several prisons at
the height of the first lockdown in spring 2020, when many
inmates were hurt, and some died, mainly from overdoses of drugs
pillaged from jail infirmaries.
The defendants are accused of crimes include torture, abuse of
authority, making false declarations and cooperation in the
culpable homicide of an Algerian prisoner.
A preliminary investigations judge (GIP) said prisoners were
made to strip and kneel and beaten with guards wearing their
helmets so as not to be identified in what he called "a horrible
massacre".
Some 15 men were also put into solitary without any
justification, the GIP said.
Police reportedly found chats on the suspects' phones including,
before the alleged violence, saying "We'll kill them like veal
calves" and "tame the beasts", and afterwards, saying "four
hours of hell for them", "no one got away", and "(we used) the
Poggioreale system", referring to a tough Naples prison.
Some of the alleged rioters had their hair cut and beards shaved
off.
Justice Minister Marta Cartabia has said that CCTV footage of
the violence showed that the officers had betrayed the Italian
Constitution.
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