Court upholds convictions of Italian G8 police

Source: The Guardian

Eleven years after Italian police savagely beat scores of protesters at the Genoa G8 meeting in 2001, leaving one British activist in a coma, an Italian court has upheld the convictions of senior officers for their roles in the raid.

The decision by Italy's cassation court, after an initial trial and an appeal, draws a definitive line underneath the violence, which Amnesty International described as the most serious suspension of democratic rights in a western country since the second world war.

The final sentences have been watered down by the statute of limitations and the accused will not be jailed, but a number of top-ranking officers now face five-year suspensions from duty.

"This ruling is a tsunami, an earthquake," said Enrico Zucca, a magistrate who prosecuted the officers at trial.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/06/italy-g8-police-appeal