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COPS BEAT MOB RULING IN GENOA

“...The cops had sent in cleaning teams, but it was still a mess. Blood was smeared on walls and the floor, the gear of everyone was torn open and thrown everywhere. Doors and windows were smashed. The computer terminals were lying on the ground in pieces. Absolute chaos.” – Eyewitness to the Diaz social centre raid aftermath.

These were some of the scenes back in 2001 when hundreds of thousands used to come out for a spot of democratic peaceful protesting at G8 meetings. Carabinieri cops in Genoa ran riot, injuring many hundreds and shooting one activist, Carlo Guiliani, dead. The extreme force used - tear gas, water cannon, tanks and bullets and beatings – left the city centre a war zone.

After the dust settled, legal battles for justice began. Attempts to bring some of the police responsible before Italian courts, by some of the hundreds of victims as joint plaintiffs, have not been straightfoward.
First off, in 2003, the Carabinieri accused of shooting Guiliani, Mario Placanica, was completely cleared without ever going to trial. The presiding judge ruled the fatal bullet had merely “ricocheted off plaster” and, anyway, he had acted in self-defence.

Bizarrely, Placanica claimed later that year that, “I’ve been used to cover up the responsibility of others...” and that the bullet found in Giuliani’s body was not of the calibre or type used by the Carabinieri. He thought the deadly shot had come from somewhere in the piazza outside (ah, the grassy knoll theory!) Shortly after this totally unneeded blabbering, in a completely unrelated incident, he was involved in a serious car accident – days after observing someone tampering with his car. He hasn’t said much else since.

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Two trials meanwhile have been dragging on; the “Bolzaneto” trial of police involved in horrific arrestee treatment and brutality back at the cells, and the “Diaz” trial of those involved in the full-force raids on a school-turned-activist social centre.

Last week, after four years of wrangling, delaying, denial, and at least one more mysterious ‘car crash’ of a star witness later, verdicts were finally handed down to the paltry forty-five police up before the beak in the Bolzaneto case.

Unsurprisingly, two thirds of those charged were duly acquitted for ‘lack of evidence’.

The fifteen fall guys who just really couldn’t be found not guilty, given all the proof, received mostly light sentences. The heaviest dished out was 5 years and 8 months for the chief of security of the jail, Antonio Biahio Gugliotta. Jail doctor Giacomo Toccafondi, especially criticized for his violence, was sentenced to just fourteen months.

In any event, the convicted have all announced that they will undertake lengthy appeals, meaning that, according to Italian law, the sentences will be suspended until lawyers get them off at a later date.
Despite the lack of convictions, the judge did rule for ‘immediate compensation’ (of between 2500-15000 euros) for the many victims – obviously untroubled by this tacit admission that events happened as alleged, but no-one is to blame.

Results are expected in the Diaz trial in the autumn... but with Berlesconi having been so busy lately further dismantling the legal system, who really knows.... Roll on G8 Sardinia 2009!

* This weekend, the seventh anniversary of Genoa will be commemorated with several events. Today (19th) - showing that the authorities’ attempts to crush resistance never work - Haidi Guliani, Carlo’s mother, is holding meetings to make preparations for the protests against the next G8 summit on the island of Sardinia in 2009. Tomorrow, the annual memorial ceremony for Carlo will take place at the Piazza Alimonda., with many international solidarity groups in attendance.

** For a history lesson (or a trip down memory lane), see SchNEWS 314-5 and www.schnews.org.uk/sotw/genoa-eyewitness.htm

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