On Thursday, November 13, 2008, was closed the last of the three large first-level trials for the events tied to the protests against the G8 of July 2001 in Genoa.
The trial against 29 police officers for the raid on the Diaz School, which ended in 93 people illegally arrested and 61 of those seriously injured, ended with an exemplary sentence: sixteen acquitted and thirteen convicted. The court decided to convict only the operatives and to acquit those who planned the mean-spirited and vindictive operation on all charges.
To absolve the liars who, to justify a butchery, decided to plant two molotov petrol bombs in the afternoon between the siezed objects, to lie about the knifing of an agent, to cover each other by spinning tales of incredible resistance on the part of the occupants of the school and sacking the media center across the street.

Torture, threaten, trample and crush the rights of the people, particularly if you belong to the forces of law and order, and they are demonstrators: in this country, that's a "nothing" crime. In contrast, breaking a window is one of the most serious crimes anyone could be possessed to do. The people are nothing. "Stuff" is everything. That is the moral that emerges from the Genoa trials.

Un print en espanol sobre la situaccion de los procesos para el G8 del 2001 en Genoa

Tomalo aquì

Presque 5 ans ont passé depuis les trois journées de juillet 2001 qui ont profondément marqué l’histoire de nombre d’entre nous.
Cinq ans durant les quels Gênes est revenue sous diverses formes. Dans le souvenir et l’implication de tous ceux et celles qui n’ont pas voulu céder à l’intimidation et à la répression par un Etat qui a de moins en moins honte de se montrer pour ce qu’il est : un outil pour l’exercice du pouvoir – dans les mains de quelques uns au détriment de beaucoup.

Quatre ans après les journées de Gênes, une année encore d'effort de mémoire et de soutien.
De mémoire pour que l'histoire de ces journées ne soit pas écrite par les tribunaux et pour que la compréhension de ce qui s'est passé nous accompagne pour faire face à l'hypocrisie quotidienne stupide et égocentrique du pouvoir. Ces quatre années passées font pour certains partie de l'histoire; mais pour d'autres, c'est une histoire qui se déroule maintenant chaque semaine dans les tribunaux.

Supportolegale continúa su labor de apoyo y asistencia a la Secretaría Legal de Génova, así como a los procesos de Cosenza y Nápoles (Marzo- 2001).

El proyecto de Supportolegale, nacido de la voluntad de activistas de medios pertenecientes a la red de Indymedia y a otros activistas de toda Italia, continúa a asistir con gran atención y a colaborar para ayudar a la Secretaría Legal y a los abogados que trabajan en los procesos con relación al G8 de Génova (incluido el proceso de Cosenza) y por los hechos de Nápoles del 2001.

So we are finally almost there: one of the four court cases around the events of july 2001 in Genoa has seen its first grade sentence, while other three are drawing to a close within the summer.
The court case against 25 people has seen people convicted to something like 110 years of jail, ranging from mere 6 months to 11 years per person. Nobody in sane mind would have expected otherwise, Genoa could not be left without someone to pay for it. But still people hoped for something different, for someone to speak up about the absurd decision of the court, or for people to take to the street again and defend their comrades. This has not happened.

Accusa -acusación
Acquisizione - adquisición
Antisommossa- antidisturbios
Archiviazione - archivo
articolo (di legge)- artículo (de una ley)
arresto - arresto
assoluzione- absolución
atti - actos
avvocato - abogado

battaglione - batallón
banco - banco

capitano -capitán
CC – Carabinieri - carabineros
Carica –carga
capo di imputazione – imputación principal
caserma- cuartel
catena di comando – cadena de mando
(CCIR)contigenti contenimento e intervento risolutivo – grupo de contención
e intervención de los carabineros
codice civile- código civil
codice di procedura penale – ley de enjuiciamiento criminal
codice penale- código penal
collegio difensivo – colectivo de la defensa
collegio giudicante - organo judicial
comandante - comandante
comma -párrafo
commissariato - comisariado
compagnia- compañia
condanna - condena
consulente- asesor
contingente- contingente
controesame- careo
controprova- prueba en contrario

A 50-year sentence, was the request of the prosecutor for the alleged "Sud Ribelle" ("Rebel South") defendants. This sentence is linked with the final bars of the trial that is taking place in Cosenza, which involves 13 codefendants, charged under various Titles of the law against
"Subversive Association." They are accused of aiming to impede the exercise of the functions of the Italian government during the Global Forum of Naples and at the G8 Summit of Genoa of July 2001.They are also accused of aiming to create a larger association composed of thousands of people ready to violently subvert the economic order constituted in the State.Not bad, for a plant.
This trial will be remembered from its very premise as having been a grotesque, tragic farce, an Italian comedy, more like "I Mostri" than like, "Persons Unknown." (I soliti ignoti)
The sentencing request of Prosecutor Fiordalisi (wanting to get himself a little bit of glory), however, was no laughing matter. This sin is

Cosenza, 01/21/2008. In today's hearing of the trial of the thirteen activists - accused of subversion of the economic order constituted by the state with the goal of destroying the cities of Naples and Genoa in 2001 - a single certainty was born: on Thursday, January 24th, from 9:30 a.m. on, Dr. Domenico Fiordalisi, representing the ROS and DIGOS special-ops police forces and others, wil vomit up all his hatred towards social struggles. Today there appeared the state prosecutor, who completed his speech in two words ("My associate") and he also on Thursday morning will tell of his own hatred of the same. Then the technical experts and consultants were heard.

Venerdì 1 febbraio, SIT-IN di protesta di fronte l'ambasciata italiana a Citta' del Messico alle ore 12 (Paseo de las Palmas 1994). Per rilanciare la solidarieta' dal basso contro le persecuzioni politiche di chi si oppone al modello neoliberalista: Genova, Firenze, Cosenza, Torino... tutti processi che mirano a criminalizzare l'organizzazione delle lotte sociali. In Italia, come in Messico e in tutto il mondo.

Segue l'appello per l'annullamento immediato e incondizionato della sentenza che condanna i/le compagn* per i fatti di Genova, redatto in Messico da alcune organizzazioni solidali e dal collettivo Nodo Solidale. Stiamo raccogliendo firme di adesione.

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Il 20 e 21 luglio 2001 a Genova, in Italia, si è dato appuntamento il G8, un vertice al quale hanno partecipato i presidenti degli 8 stati più potenti del mondo, riuniti per decidere la sorte di tutto il pianeta e pianificare nuove guerre coloniali e sfruttamento.

18.12.07
12.15: Activistas ocuparon el Instituto de Cultura Italiana de Madrid en protesta por las 24 condenas con motivo de la cumbre del G8 en Génova en 2001

Una cronaca dell'occupazione è qui

Foto e video:
1 | 2 | 3

La sentencia del proceso en contra de los 25 manifestantes para los disturbios ocurridos en el marco de las protestas contra el g8 en Genova, eligiò cual es el precio que se debe pagar para exprimir las propias ideas y para oponerse al estado de cosas presentes: 110 aňos de carcel. El Tribunal del presidente Devoto y de los jueces Gatti y Realini, no tuvo el coraje de oponerse a la feroz recostrución de la historia colectiva a al uso del poder que los ministerios fiscales le pidieron de avalar. Mejor dicho hizo algo peor. Eligió de sentenciar que hay una forma “buena” para exprimir el disenso y una forma “mala”, que hay formas compatibles de protesta y formas que tienen que ser sancionadas como un crimen de guerra.

Para completar la obra aportó también una consolación al fin del proceso para los defensores y los “ciudadanos honestos”, pidiendo la trasmisión de las actas judiciales para los testimonios de dos carabineros y dos policías, un regalito con el cual no se alivia la pesadez de la sentencia y el sentido de caridad de la cual no nos interesa.

El tribunal de Genova eligió de secundar todas las fuerzas políticas, todos los bienpensantes, todos aquellos abogados, che – concientemente – esperaban que pocos, aún menos de los 25 imputados, fueran condenados para restablecerse y para puntar su propio dedo goteante moral y cociencia sucia. La utilización del delito de devastación y saqueo para condenar echos ocurridos en el marco de una manifestación política abre la puerta a una operación muy peligrosa, que quería ver las personas rendidas a las elecciones de quien goberna, inermos frente a los abusos cotidianos de un sistema en llena emergencia democrática, antés que económica. Nadie de los que eran en Genova en el 2001 y que construyeron su carrera utilizando las reivindicaciones de las protestas de Genova, para traicionarlas en la primera ocasión con qualquier votación o medio necesario, quiso exprimirse en contra de esa operación absurda y instrumental: nadie, o casi, en todas las formaciones políticas de centro-izquierda que gobernan supo decir que en Genova, entre los que hoy quedan condenados con años de carcel, hubieran tenido que estar todos los que participaron a las mobilitaciones de aquellas jornadas.

La misma tarea fue desarollada por muchos de los movimientos y muchas de las personas que trataron de sabotear los contenidos de la manifestación que hace tres semanas, el 17 de noviembre, llenaron las calles de Genova: quisieron enturbiar las miradas de las personas sobre quienes eran realmente los que luchaban para un modelo alternativo de vida e de sociedad, y quien defendía el modelo que vivimos en nuestra piel todos los dias; quisieron agitar las aguas, quizás porque su dignidad también quedaba bien confundida. Y entonces decenas de comunicados sobre las posibles Comisiones del Parlamento, sobre la Verdad y la Justícia, y muy pocas palabras sobre las 25 personas que se estaban volviendo los chivos expiatorios de un poder que tuvo miedo. Genova no se borra con el revisionismo judiciário ni con las elecciones ventajosas ni con los fantasmas en el armario.

Las 80.000 personas que el pasado 17 de noviembre manifestaron por las calles de Genova no pedían una Comisión del Parlamento, sino que las 25 personas no se volvieran en la tapadera atràs de la cual esconder una página de la historia incómoda, que metió en discusión el actual sistema de vida y de la sociedad. Somos seguros que aquellas 80000 personas nos escuchen y que no van a permitir que en una sala de un Tribunal se exproprie la memoria colectiva y se arrasen las vidas de 24 personas.

Con mayor razón hoy, con una sentencia que trata de aplastarnos y darnos verguenza de lo que fuimos y de lo que vivimos, de oscurar los momentos de aquella revuelta y de no darle la luz y la dignidad así como merecerían los momentos más puros que exprimen la voluntad popular, nosotros decimos que que nunca vamos a renegar nada, que no vamos a pedir perdón, porque no hay ninguna motivación para hacerlo ni de que arrepentirse, porque nosostros aquel momento lo vivimos como el más alto de nuetra vida política.

Nosotros pensamos que todos los que estaban en Genova tendrían que gritar: en cualquier caso ningún remordimiento. Ningún remordimiento para las calles ocupadas por la revuelta, ningún remordimiento para el terror de los grandes atrinhcerados en la zona roja, ningún remordimiento para las barricadas, para las escaparates desfondadas, para las protecciones de plexiglass, para los escudos de plexiglass, para la ropa negra, para las manos blancas, para las danzas pink, ningún remordimiento para la determinación con la cual metimos en discusión el poder en aquellos dias.
Lo decimos el día después de Genova y en todos estos años: la memoria es un engranaje colectivo que no se puede sabotear. No vamos a probar ningún remordimiento para todo lo que pasó y todo lo que significó para nostros Genova. Hoy, como ayer y mañana, seguimos repitiendo que la historia somos Nosotros. Hoy, como ayer y mañana, seguimos diciendo: en cualquier caso ningún remordimiento

Supporto Legale
info@supportolegale.org

The sentence of the trial against the 25 demonstrators for the Genoa g8 riots has fixed the price to pay for expressing our own ideas and going against the actual state of things: 110 years of jail. The tribunal, formed by chief judge Devoto and two associate judges Gatti and Realiani, was not brave enough to oppose to the savage reconstruction of the collective history towards the power that the public prosecutors Andrea Canciani e Anna Canepa asked to guarantee.
On the contrary it did even worse. It chose to sentence that there is a good and a bad way to express our own dissent, that there are tolerable ways to protest and ways that should be punished as if they were a war crime.

To top it all, the Court has also given a consolation prize to the defence lawyers and to all the "honest citizens": the files on the false statements given by two Carabinieri (military police) and two policemen will be the start of an investigation, a sweetener that does not mitigate the importance of the sentence and a pittance that we strongly reject.

The Genoa court has decided to support all those political forces, all those conventional thinkers, all those lawyers that - consciously - hoped that a few, even less that the 25 defendants, would be condemned to drew a sigh of relief, to point their finger dripping with morals and guilty conscience.
The use of devastation and sacking as a crime to condemn facts occurred during a political demo opens the way to a dangerous operation, that would like to see people motionless to the choices of those who govern, defenceless to the daily abuses of power from a system in deep democratic crisis, even befor economical one. None of those who where in Genoa in 2001 and that have build their careers on the Genoa slogans (and have later betrayed them all with any possible vote or action), has rised against this absurd and opportunist operation: almost nobody from the whole center-left-wing coalition has found time enough to state that today not only 24 people, but all the demostrators have been convicted to years of jail.

The same thing has happened inside large parts of the movement, with a lot of people trying to sabotage the messages of the demo that only three weeks ago has filled the streets of Genoa. They created confusion about who was fighting for a different life and society and who was protecting the actual state of things, maybe because their dignity is confused too. So, many words were said and written about a possible parliamentary committee of enquiry, about Truth and Justice, yet too few words about those 25 people who were going to be the scapegoats of a scared power.

Yet Genoa can't be erased with an act of revisionism by the Court, nor with hypocritical and opportunistic choices and skeletons hidden in the cupboard. The 80.0000 people that last November, 17th have marched in Genoa were not asking for a parliamentary committee of enquiry; they wanted to state loud and clear that 25 people can't shield an inconvenient historical passage that questioned so strongly our lifestyle and society. We believe that those 80.000 people are listening to us and will not let a Court expropriate their memory and devastate the lives of 24 people.
This sentence tries to overwhelm us and make us feel ashamed of what we where and lived, giving a dim view of moments of riot that instead deserve the light and dignity of moments of popular will; but we will not apologize for anything, because we have nothing to repent and we consider Genoa 2001 the highest moment of our political lives.

We believe that all of those who were in Genoa should scream: in any case, no regret. No regret for the streets taken from the rebels, no regret for the terror of the G8 closed inside the red zone, no regret for the barricades, for the broken windows, for the foam-rubber protections, for the plexiglass shields, for the black dresses, for the white hands, for the pink dances, no regret for the resolution we questioned the power for some days.
We said it the day after Genoa, and during all those years: memory is a collective gear that can't be saboted. And we will feel no regret for what Genoa was and meant for us.
Today, like yesterday or tomorrow, we say again: in any case, no regret.

Today, 10th of december, we got the first judgement for the antifascists accused of devastating and looting during the antifa demo that took place in Torino in June 2005.
The judge didn't charge them with the devastating and looting charge, but they are still accused of damages, though it's a less serious accusation that should drop because of the pardon law: this means that they shouldn't spend one single more day in jail.

news (in italian): http://piemonte.indymedia.org/article/766

a short summary of what happened in Torino in June 2005:

During the night a fascist action squad got into the Barocchio squat in Torino with knives and sticks: 2 anarchists got wounded, one of them got severely wounded in his intestine and had to be operated. It was just by chance that nobody died.

Supportolegale has been dealing with Genoa G8 court cases for 4 years now, as a collective made up of people who have been protagonists, together with thousands of other people, of those events that made Genoa e crucial node of our lives and histories. The november 17th demo was born first and foremost out of the generic call to mobilization on the Genoa courtcases we published as Supportolegale on 2 Itlaian left-wing newspapers - Liberazione and Il Manifesto - few weeks before the demo. Supportolegale chose to promote and participate in the organization of the demo in order to keep the event focused on the defence of the 25 protestors who are being used as scapegoat of those days of our collective history. What is happening in these years in the Courts of Genoa - and Cosenza - aims at terrorizing the most spontaneous and decentralized forms of social and political organizing. This is why we called out the demo using the refrain: "We are history".

We are history - a call to mobilization for november 17th 2007

It's been years we have asked everybody to take responsibility as
collectively as possible for what the mobilizations against G8 in Genoa
were.
The arrogance of Genoa prosecutors during the final speech of their
accusation in the court case against 25 protestors accused of devastation
and sacking seems to have eventually aroused the hearts and brains of
300000 people that in Genoa opposed themselves to the politics of the G8.
We think this is not the time for childish hairsplittings and sectarism.

Oct 2007 - Updates on Genoa Court Case
The prosecutors ask 225 years of jail for 25 protestors

Genoa court case are not ending tomorrow, but they are drawing to a close, an people seems to have forgotten what Genoa meant and how big part of history we have been when we decided to take the streets in those days of july 2001.

Update on the Genoa Legal Cases - summer 2007

For background info:
http://supportolegale.org/?q=node/601 -> summary of court case just before summer 2006
http://supportolegale.org/?q=node/971 -> summary of court case as of january 2006

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.

(ANSA) - BRUXELLES, 5 DEC - Audience ce matin à la Cour européenne des Droits de l'Homme de Strasbourg sur la requête présentée par les parents et la soeur de Carlo Giuliani, mort à Gênes en 2001 pendant les affrontement lors du sommet du G8.

(ANSA) - GENES, 22NOV
Ce matin a repris (après la pause estivale) devant
la 3eme chambre pénale du tribunal de Gênes, le procès des 29 policiers accusés de faux, calomnie et blessures graves pour l'irruption sanglante à l'école Diaz, pendant le G8 de 2001 à Gênes. Dans la cour d'audience, présidée par Gabrio Barone, a été entendu comme témoin de l'accusation D.M. , journaliste de Radio Gap, qui était dans l'école Pascoli où a été aménagé le media center.

Huit heures pour la XXI audience du 10 octobre du procès à l'encontre des 13
militants politiques accusés d'association subversive, l'audience la plus
longue depuis le début des procès.
Bref examen de M.Mondelli (fonctionnaire de Cuneo actuellement dirigeant du

G8 : BOLZANETO. Handicapé, ils me frappèrent même sur ma jambe malade.
Gênes, 6 novembre. Dans la 3eme chambre du Tribunal pénal présidé par
R.Delucchi, se poursuit aujourd'hui avec le témoignage de 4 autres témoins,

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Public Statement

AI Index: EUR 30/005/2006 (Public)
News Service No: 192
21 July 2006

http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/document.do?id=ENGEUR300052006

FIVE YEARS AFTER THE G8 GENOA POLICING OPERATIONS: ITALIAN AUTHORITIES MUST TAKE CONCRETE ACTION TO PREVENT AND PROSECUTE POLICE BRUTALITY IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES