something uglier and more worrying beneath the surface

a few months ago i was discussing with my friend giulia about the trials related to the violent facts that happened in Genoa during the 2001 G8 summit, which were taking place at that time in italy. several of the people who went there to demonstrate against the summit witnessed and experienced, during and after the summit, extremely strong abuses, then long, slow trials started. but now, after seven years, the trials are going towards a blind alley: of all the people who will possibly turn out guilty, none of them will have to serve prison terms, because of the long trial times and a statute of limitations we call "prescrizione". furthermore, in italy the accuse of torture still cannot be charged: it does simply not exist.

besides the forecast outcome of the trials, one of the things that pissed my friend off most was that there was no single word in the international press about that. she told me you should write something on your blog (as if it was a well known spotlight for information!). we even thought we ought to write letters to the main international newspapers. so many words had been spent against US off-border torture policy, but when something as scary as that happens (and is successfully hidden afterwards) within the good old gates of europe, it is largely ignored...

i am more and more scared we are becoming more and more like those people i described in the Guantanamo post a few days ago: are we really going to be insensitive to torture, even when it is performed in our own country? i hope not.

then a couple of days ago the final verdict of the trial came out. exactly as expected, the sentence is purely representative: none of the convicted ones will actually go to jail, no political investigation will be carried out to probe responsibilities.
and, not so ironically, one of the most interesting comments i read this time was not on the italian newspapers, but on The Guardian. at least this time the european press has not stayed silent.

so i am posting here a couple of passages from the article by Nick Davies, 17.07.2008:

(.....)
On Monday, 15 police, prison guards and prison medics finally were convicted for their part in the violence - although it emerged yesterday that none of them would actually serve prison terms. In Italy, defendants don't go to jail until they have exhausted the appeals process; and in this case, the convictions and sentences will be wiped out by a statute of limitations next year. Meanwhile, the politicians who were responsible for the police, prison guards and prison medics have never had to explain themselves. Fundamental questions about why this happened remain unanswered - and they hint at the third and most important reason for remembering Genoa. This is not simply the story of law officers running riot, but of something uglier and more worrying beneath the surface.
(.....)
No Italian politician has been brought to book, in spite of the strong suggestion that the police acted as though somebody had promised them impunity. One minister visited Bolzaneto while the detainees were being mistreated and apparently saw nothing or, at least, saw nothing he thought he should stop.
(.....)
Most of the several hundred law officers involved in Diaz and Bolzaneto have escaped without any discipline or criminal charge. None has been suspended; some have been promoted. None of the officers who were tried over Bolzaneto has been charged with torture - Italian law does not recognise the offence.
(.....)
Fifty-two days after the attack on the Diaz school, 19 men used planes full of passengers as flying bombs and shifted the bedrock of assumptions on which western democracies had based their business. Since then, politicians who would never describe themselves as fascists have allowed the mass tapping of telephones and monitoring of emails, detention without trial, systematic torture, the calibrated drowning of detainees, unlimited house arrest and the targeted killing of suspects, while the procedure of extradition has been replaced by "extraordinary rendition". This isn't fascism with jack-booted dictators with foam on their lips. It's the pragmatism of nicely turned-out politicians. But the result looks very similar. Genoa tells us that when the state feels threatened, the rule of law can be suspended. Anywhere.


the full article can be found here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/17/italy.g8