Italy: Cracks appear in police silence on Genoa
01 July 2007
On 13 June 2007 the former flying squad chief, Michelangelo Fournier, appeared in court and broke the silence that has marked the testimony of police officers appearing on charges resulting from the police raid on the Diaz school on 21 July 2001.
High-ranking officers, such as Francesco Gratteri, subsequently promoted as head of anti-terrorist activity, and Gianni Luperi, chief intelligence analyst with the crime prevention department, are among the defendants. Others include Fabio Ciccimarra, who also faces charges for violence against detainees during an earlier demonstration in Naples (see Statewatch Vol. 12 no 2), and Massimo Nucera, for falsely alleging that he had been attacked with a knife in the Diaz school. During the raid on the school, which was serving as a dormitory, activists were beaten and the operation resulted in 93 people being arrested, 63 of whom received injuries (see
Statewatch Vol. 11 nos 3/4).
Colourfully describing the police operation as "Mexican butchery", Fournier, who was among the first groups to enter the school noted that: "I saw ten or twelve demonstrators massacred [badly beaten] while they lay on the floor, and four or five officers striking them. At first I thought that it was a struggle and I tugged at them and invited them to stop. Two wore a white belt and two wore "stomachers" [ornamental dress], they were not from my unit". Asked by prosecutors as to why he had not reported them, he replied: "I did not do so out of love for my country, to prevent more harm and not to throw any mud". Fournier added that he had taken off his helmet, shouted "enough, enough" and called for medical help to assist a German woman, Melanie Jonasch. He was "disgusted and worried. I was sure that girl was going to die". He also spoke of an undercover officer mimicking a sexual act in front of an activist.
Fournier also described the use of
Tonfa batons during the operation: "A blow to the head with a
Tonfa does not leave many chances of survival" he said, adding that he hoped they would be seized and subjected to rigorous testing. These multi-purpose truncheons were to be trialed by officers from the newly-created
nucleo antisommossa (riot squad), and three officers from the Los Angeles police were flown in to give a weeks training in their use. They are L-shaped and can be used as an offensive weapon (held by the handle) or defensively to block blows (flat on top of the arm), or to partially immobilise someone who is being detained (using the right angle with the handle). Video footage from Genoa also showed them being misused to strike demonstrators with the (extremely hard) handle.
Police chief under investigation
A further development saw Gianni De Gennaro replaced as head of the police by Antonio Manganelli on 2 June 2006. The change happened only weeks after De Gennaro was notified that he was under investigation for encouraging the head of the Genoa police during the G8, Francesco Colucci, to lie in his testimony. He is being investigated for "persuading Francesco Colucci, through instigation or induction" to submit information that did not "correspond to the truth" when he was questioned on 3 May, retracting earlier statements concerning the "preparation, execution and conclusion of police operations carried out in the Diaz school", particularly the communications and information exchange between himself and De Gennaro. Inducing a subordinate to commit an offence, and abusing his public office, are aggravating circumstances that are being considered by investigating magistrates.
The government stressed that De Gennaro was replaced at the end of a long term (he had been head of the interior ministry's department of security since 2000) and he has gone on to occupy an important post as head of cabinet at the interior ministry. After De Gennaro's transfer, Professor Salvatore Palidda of Genoa University noted that:
The same hierarchy th