14.11.08
www.abc.net.au 13 Italian police jailed over G8 summit riots
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/14/2420069.htm?section=justin
13 Italian police jailed over G8 summit riots
Posted Fri Nov 14, 2008 2:28pm AEDT
A court in Genoa has sentenced 13 Italian police officers to prison, while
acquitting another 16, for the violent crackdown on anti-globalisation
protesters at a G8 summit in 2001.
Among those acquitted were the three main officials responsible for
maintaining order at the summit held in the northern Italian city,
according to the sentencing read live on television by the clerk of the
court.
Cries of "shame, shame" were heard from the public when the acquittal of
the police chief was announced.
Police officers were accused notably of planting two Molotov cocktail
firebombs on protesters while they were being held at the city's Diaz
school, as well as beating protesters and conducting arbitrary searches.
The case turned in June 2007 when a senior officer in Rome broke ranks and
spoke out describing scenes resembling a "butcher's yard".
One 23-year-old man died in the clashes.
The 13 convicted officers were sentenced to a total of 35 years and seven
months in prison. The longest single sentence was for four years.
In another separate trial in July this year, jail terms were handed down
to 15 members of the security forces for crimes committed in a nearby
barracks, while 24 anti-globalisation protesters received between five
months and 11 years in prison.
The clashes during anti-globalisation demonstrations around the Group of
Eight industrial powers summit in July 2001 left several hundred people
injured and caused millions of euros in damages.
