Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: [AI]G8 Genoa policing operation - 6 April trial opening is a step towards combating police impunity

Miracolo!
Certo per come si sono comportati molti delle Forze dell'Ordine a
Genova, c'è davvero da auspicarsi che il processo porti a stabilire
precise responsabilità.
Da notare che, nonostante la ratifica della Convenzione ONU contro la
tortura, in Italia non c'è ancora una legislazione chiara in proposito.
Saluti
=======================
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement
AI Index: EUR 30/003/2005 (Public)
News Service No: 081
4 April 2005
Italy: G8 Genoa policing operation - 6 April trial opening is a step
towards combating police impunity
On 6 April, almost four years after the policing operation surrounding
the G8 summit and related demonstrations held in Genoa in July 2001, 28
police officers, a number of them high-ranking, are scheduled to stand
trial. They are being tried in connection with an overnight police raid
on a school building used as a dormitory for demonstrators and as centre
for the Genoa Social Forum, the umbrella group organizing the main
programme of demonstrations. The accusations against them range from
abusing their powers as state officers, falsifying and planting evidence
and causing serious bodily harm.
Amnesty International welcomes the opening of the trial as a significant
step towards combating police impunity. However, it laments the failure
of the Italian authorities to take other vital measures to combat police
impunity, both in connection with the G8 policing operation and in the
broader context of frequent effective impunity for law enforcement and
prison officers accused of torture, ill-treatment and excessive force,
which Amnesty International has recorded over many years.
The 93 people arrested during the raid on the school building said they
had offered no resistance, as the police maintained, but were subjected
to deliberate and gratuitous beatings. At least 62 of them suffered
injuries: 31 were taken to hospital, three of them in a critical state.
Some are still receiving medical treatment. They were not only accused
of resisting the police but of theft, carrying offensive weapons and
belonging to a criminal association intent on looting and destroying
property. By February 2004, following criminal investigation, all
proceedings against them had been dropped for lack of evidence. Only 28
police officers are standing trial: scores of officers involved in the
raid, and believed to have participated in physical assaults, could not
be identified because their face were frequently hidden by masks,
scarves or riot helmets and they wore no numbers or name tags.
Amnesty International has repeatedly urged that Italy bring its practice
in line with the European Code of Police Ethics, adopted by the Council
of Europe in September 2001 and ensure that its officers are obliged to
display prominently some form of individual identification, such as a
service number, in order to avoid situations of impunity recurring.
Another internationally-recognized means of preventing a climate of
impunity developing and further police abuse occurring is the suspension
from duty of officers suspected of such offences, pending the outcome of
criminal proceedings against them. Amnesty International has been
concerned to note that the officers facing trial in connection with the
overnight raid in Genoa were not suspended from service and that some
were, in fact, promoted.
The majority of those arrested in the overnight raid were taken to
Bolzaneto temporary detention facility through which well over 200
people passed and where many were deprived of the fundamental and
internationally-recognized rights of detainees, including their right of
access to lawyers and consular officials and to have relatives informed
of their whereabouts. In a submission to a preliminary hearing judge in
March 2005, Genoa public prosecutors set out graphically the evidence of
verbal and physical abuse suffered by the detainees. They described,
among other things, detainees being slapped, kicked, punched and spat
on; subjected to threats, including of rape, and to verbal abuse,
including of an obscene sexual nature; made to line up and stand for
hours, spread-eagled against a wall; deprived of food, water and sleep
for lengthy periods; subjected to body searches carried out in a
deliberately degrading manner, with detainees made to adopt humiliating
postures and women made to strip naked in the presence of male officers.
They cited individual instances of abuse, including a female detainee
having her head forced into a toilet, a male detainee being forced to go
down on all fours and bark like a dog and the beating of male detainee
unable to remain standing for hours because he had an artificial leg.
The prosecutors requested that 15 police officers, 11 carabinieri, 16
prison officers and five medical personnel be committed for trial on
various charges, including abusing their authority, coercion, threats,
and causing bodily harm, and accused them of subjecting detainees to
inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of Article 3 of the
European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. However,
the prosecutors also expressed the fear that, given the amount of time
already passed since July 2001 prescription -- the lapsing of the time
frame during which a crime can be tried -- might intervene and those
accused in their submission might never be brought to justice.
Amnesty International underlines that one of the most effective ways of
preventing torture, ill-treatment and excessive force lies in the
application of appropriate sanctions -- commensurate with the gravity of
the crime -- by the criminal justice system. Knowing that the courts are
ready to inflict rigorous penalties on officials who order, condone or
perpetrate torture and ill-treatment constitutes one of the most
powerful dissuasive factors. Bringing offenders to justice not only
deters them from repeating their crimes, it also makes it clear to
others that ill-treatment will not be tolerated and reassures the
general public that no one is above the law.
In July 2001, given the lamentable absence of an independent national
human rights institution or an independent police complaints and
accountability body in Italy, Amnesty International called for the
immediate establishment of an independent public commission of inquiry
into the G8 policing operation and put forward some of the criteria for
an effective commission. No such body has ever been established but the
need remains. Such a body could also provide the basis for a permanent,
independent police complaints and accountability mechanism, with a
mandate to address all aspects of policing.
The importance of political will in combating police impunity cannot be
underestimated. Amnesty International echoes the clear guidance which
the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture
addressed to all member states last year: "... no one must be left in
any doubt concerning the commitment of the State authorities to
combating impunity. This will underpin the action being taken at all
other levels. When necessary, those authorities should not hesitate to
deliver, through a formal statement at the highest political level, the
clear message that there must be 'zero tolerance' of torture and other
forms of ill-treatment."
Amnesty International deplores the fact that seventeen years after
ratifying the UN Convention against Torture, and after repeated calls by
inter-governmental bodies, including the UN Committee against Torture
and the Human Rights Committee, for the introduction of a crime of
torture, as defined in the UN Convention against Torture, into its penal
code, Italy has yet to introduce such a crime.
For further information see in particular Italy: G8 Genoa policing
operation of July 2001. A summary of concerns (AI Index: 30/012/2001)
and the entries on Italy contained in successive editions of Amnesty
International Concerns in Europe and Central Asia and the annual Amnesty
International Report. All to be found at 
www.amnesty.org

 towards combating police impunity
Grazie , Miriam, di questo articolo di Amnesty I.
A suo tempo per il seguito increscioso del G8 di Genova, ci fu un 
interrogazione parlamentare persino qui in NZ, perche`due giovani 
cittadini neozelandesi, subirono maltrattamenti, il fermo dalla polizia 
italiana e fu impedito loro di comunicare con un avvocato.
Ciao
Giano
P.S.-Grazie ancora a chi si e` divertito ad intasare il box di 
operamail; non posso leggere nulla dei messaggi spediti in questa ultima 
settimana e ho chiesto ad Opera che venga svuotato...una giusta 
benedizione a chi si e`divertito a farlo per la seconda volta e`d'obbligo...
vaff.....o!!!
----
~"cut the CRAP"!

 Giano
Insomma, ci siam fatti riconoscere pure in NZ!
'Stica**i!
Ciao