A number of police officers banned
after being found guilty in the notorious and bloody round-up at
a Genoa school housing anti-globalisation protesters at the
Group of Eight summit in the northern Italian city are set to
return to duty, sources said Tuesday.
The officers, who were only convicted of making false
statements in claiming firebombs planted by police were found in
the Diaz School, include former head of the SCO security police
Gilberto Caldarozzi, former head of the Genoa branch of the
Digos anti-terror police Spartaco Mortola and police officer
Pietro Troiani, sources said.
Massimo Nucera, a policeman who falsely claimed he had been
stabbed, has already returned to active duty.
Of the 16 convicted, including police high-ups Francesco
Gratteri and Giovanni Luperi, half have retired on a full
pension and half are set to return to work, sources aid.
The small Italian Left (SI) party said the men's returning to
duty was "an offence to the rule of law".
Last month the European Court of Human Rights again condemned
Italy over police brutality during the Genoa G8 in 2001.
The court said Italy's laws, before a very recent updating,
were inadequate to punish torture committed by the security
forces in a ruling related to a night raid on the Diaz school,
which was being used as a billet for protesters.
The court also condemned Italy for not having adequately
punished those responsible for what happened in Genoa.
In the night assault on the Diaz school, hundreds of police
attacked about 100 activists and a few journalists, wounding 82
and seriously injuring 61 - three critically and one, British
journalist Mark Covell, left in a coma with rib and spinal
injuries.
Later, at the police barracks in nearby Bolzaneto, some 252
demonstrators rounded up at the Diaz and another school, the
Pascali, said they were spat at, verbally and physically
humiliated or threatened with rape while being held.
Officers planted evidence including two Molotov cocktails and
hammers and knives from a nearby construction site to justify
the raid.
Amnesty International called the event "the most serious
suspension of democratic rights in a Western country since the
Second World War".
In April Italy admitted responsibility for police brutality
at the Bolzaneto barracks and agreed to pay 45,000 euros each to
six citizens for moral and material damages as well as court
costs.
During the 2001 G8, one protester was shot dead while
attacking a Carabinieri policeman, shops and businesses were
ransacked, and hundreds of people injured in clashes between
police and demonstrators.
Earlier this month the Lower House gave final approval to a
law introducing the crime of torture, thus filling the
legislative vacuum.
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