(ANSA) - Strasbourg, March 24 - The European Court of Human
Rights on Thursday definitively cleared Italy of any
responsibility for the death of Carlo Giuliani, an
anti-globalisation protester shot dead by a Carabiniere during
clashes at the Group of Eight summit in Genoa in 2001.
In a majority verdict in the court's second ruling on the
case in two years, the justices of the Grand Chamber said they
were satisfied with the innocence of officer Mario Placanica.
Placanica killed Giuliani, 23, amid violence that marred
the three-day event, scarred the northeastern Italian city and
led to long-running court cases against protesters charged with
criminal damage and police accused of brutality.
The Grand Chamber on Thursday also acquitted Italy of the
twin charges of not having conducted a sufficiently thorough
probe and not having made satisfactory advance plans for summit
policing.
Giuliani's father Carlo reacted to the verdict by saying:
"We won't give up, we'll take it to a civil court".
The court's first ruling on the case came on August 25,
2009, when it upheld Italy's contention that Placanica acted
in self-defence.
The court accepted the version of events presented by
Italian authorities that Placanica did not use excessive force
when he shot Giuliani during the riot on July 20, 2001.
However, the court also agreed with Giuliani's family
that Italy should have opened a probe into whether the
incident was the result of poor planning and management by
police and political authorities.
For this reason the Strasbourg court ordered the state
to pay Giuliani's family 40,000 euros in damages.
Despite allegations to the contrary by Giuliani's
family, the court said the Italian government had cooperated
sufficiently to allow the court to fully examine the case.
Giuliani, who became a martyr for Italy's
anti-globalisation movement, was shot in the face by Placanica
as he was about to hurl a fire extinguisher into the
Carabiniere's ambushed jeep.
The jeep, which was jammed up against a building, then
reversed over his body.
Placanica, who was 21 at the time and drafted in with
other National Service forces to help maintain order at the
summit, was subsequently placed under investigation for possible
homicide but later acquitted
After the summit, dozens of police officers and local and
national officials were convicted of brutality.
In one trial 29 policemen, including three top-ranking
officers, were accused of grievous bodily harm, planting
evidence and wrongful arrest during a night-time raid on a
school that was housing many G8 protesters.
A court in 2009 acquitted 16 defendants, including
the three officers, and sentenced 13 lower-ranking officers to
terms ranging from one month to four years - terms they will
never serve because of an intervening amnesty.
However, at an appeals trial in May, higher-ranking
officers were convicted too.
Then, last June, a Genoa appeals court gave the head of
Italy's intelligence services a two-year prison sentence for his
role in trying to cover up police brutality.
Gianni De Gennaro, who was the national police chief
between 2000 and 2007, had been among those acquitted in
November 2009.
The judges concluded that De Gennaro had been involved in
pressuring Genoa's head of police in 2001 to change his
testimony in a trial against officers for violence against
demonstrators.
The verdict sparked outrage among members of Premier Silvio
Berlusconi's People of Freedom party.
Berlusconi and other ministers had been loud in their support for the ex-police chief. The appeals court also overturned the acquittal of the ex-head of the Genoa branch of the Digos security police, handing him a 16-month sentence. The sentences of both men were suspended for five years. Three people were left comatose and 26 had to be taken to hospital after the raid, which gained headlines worldwide. The police, who burst into the Diaz school in riot gear, arrested 93 protesters, including British, French, German and other non-Italian nationals. More than 300,000 demonstrators converged on Genoa for the G8 summit in July 2001.
Berlusconi and other ministers had been loud in their support for the ex-police chief. The appeals court also overturned the acquittal of the ex-head of the Genoa branch of the Digos security police, handing him a 16-month sentence. The sentences of both men were suspended for five years. Three people were left comatose and 26 had to be taken to hospital after the raid, which gained headlines worldwide. The police, who burst into the Diaz school in riot gear, arrested 93 protesters, including British, French, German and other non-Italian nationals. More than 300,000 demonstrators converged on Genoa for the G8 summit in July 2001.
