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Genoa: the trial of 25 activists starts again

On the 16th of January, the trial against 25 activists charged with "sacking and devastation" during the Group of 8 Summit held in Genoa in July 2001, was opened again after a long continuance, due to the decision to change some judges of the Court. The hearings should go on for one month, until the 16th of February. The first witness was the police officer Zampese, who at the time wrote a chronology of the events surrounding the summit. He had already been heard on the 11th of October, 2005. In his opinion, the G8 was "ravaged" by violent activists, the police did not act against the people, nobody was beaten, and no one hurt by policemen.
Supporto Legale is the association that is supporting all of the activists on trial, as well as the legal proceedings against the police officers accused of violence, torture, and abuse of power. SupportoLegale denounces the way the hearings are held, and the use of people like Zampese as witnesses.
Furthermore, on the 17th of January, a new development came out in the trial against 29 police officers charged with falsification of evidence and slander in connection with the violent military-style raid carried out by police in the Diaz School where Genoa activists were sleeping and working during the G8. Two petrol bombs, which had initially been used as evidence of violent behavior on the part of the activists who had been in the Diaz school, but which were later discovered to in fact have been deliberately planted there by police officers, are now missing. The trial has been stopped now, waiting for the recovery of the molotovs. Meanwhile, people are waiting for members of the Italian parliament, whose request for a parliamentary inquiry into the G8 was stopped by the previous right-wing government, to propose the inquiry again to the new ruling coalition.
One of the proponents of the inquiry commission is Haidi Giuliani, the mother of Carlo Giuliani, a young man shot and killed by police during the G8. She is now a Senator for the Italian Rifondazione party. The call for a parliamentary inquiry represents a growing request for human rights, against the inhumane mass detention of migrants, and against police brutality in Italy. Another important voice still requiring an explanation is the one of the mother of Federico Aldrovandi, a young man beaten to death by police whose killers were recently sent to trial.

29th of January 2007
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2007/01/879113.shtml