Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Genoa G8 Trials: Seizure And Punishment

Genoa Legal Support team (Supportolegale) | 24.03.2005 12:14 | Genoa | Globalisation | Repression | Social Struggles | World

Fresh intimidation from prosecutors trying Genoa G8 protestors, as laptops belonging to defense lawyers are seized following unrelated libel claims

The Genoa public prosecutor's office has apparently descended to new depths in its case against 25 demonstrators accused of involvement in the Genoa G8 clashes. On March 16, several officers with the plain-clothes Digos security police seized two laptops being used by Genoa Legal Forum lawyers. The operation followed charges of libel filed by the public prosecutors Anna Canepa and Andrea Canciani over remarks about them that appeared on the italy.indymedia.org website.

The computers were seized during the course of a trial that was entirely unconnected to the Genoa G8 events. Yet they contained a great deal of confidential information about the 25 G8 demonstrators' case, which - surprisingly! - is being tried by Canepa and Canciani.

The seizure places fresh strain on the Genoa trials. These are increasingly accompanied by reporting that is bringing even further pressure to bear on an already tense situation. For example, an early evening broadcast on the so-called public television network recently made an amateurish attempt to rewrite the G8 events, cobbling together dramatic images and tapped phone conversations in a bid to show that the violence was subversive and had been planned in advance.

We believe that this latest act of intimidation indicates the level of fear in certain circles over the G8 trials under way. This is particularly the case with regards to preparation for the hearings and their coverage by a network of activists, who are issuing press releases and weekly public summaries on the proceedings' progress. Sadly, this attention has met with an embarrassing silence among sections of the movement, as well as on the part of certain individuals, both institutional and otherwise, that earned political capital from the events at the time.

Meanwhile, the prosecutors - whose purpose is surely to uncover the truth - have revealed an astonishing level of interest in a few sentences on the Internet that they believe constitute personal libel. This compares to their complete silence and lack of interest in considerably more serious events that have emerged during the G8 proceedings. For example, the fact that Carabinieri police officers used crossbars instead of batons, the illegal seizure of a video archive built up by indemedia.org (which belonged to a lawyer and was delivered, incomplete, to the prosecutor - in other words, tampering with the evidence) and the reticence of regular and ranked police officers testifying at the hearings.

Numerous episodes, occurring on a near daily basis in the Genoa courts, confirm this atmosphere. Take the "armoring" of the tribunal, with police officers in anti-riot gears; the overwhelming number of Digos officers both inside and outside the courtroom; the checks and searches of everyone attending the trials (which are public); and the repeated episodes of provocation, such as when an officer in Canepa's escort slapped a youth at the hearing because he didn't want to lower the hood on his sweatshirt.

The most recent regrettable incident occurred during a March 19 preliminary hearing into torture charges being brought against 47 police offices, prison guards and medics at the Bolzaneto detention center. The judge had to order a Digos official out of the courtroom, as the hearing was not public and his presence had not been authorized.

In a March 22 hearing in the trial against the 25 demonstrators, the court recognized that the seizure of the two laptops had damaged the defense and suspended proceedings until April 5.

The Genoa public prosecutor's office implicitly admitted that while the seizure had technically related to another proceeding, it had specifically targeted two Genoa Legal Forum lawyers. Canepa was particularly critical of one of them, making irritable remarks over the fact that he continued tapping away on his laptop during the hearings.

The president of the court rejected the prosecution's claims and agreed with the defense, that the seizure threatened the equal status of the prosecution and defense, as required by law.

The computers have been sent to the city of Turin, also in northern Italy, and we been given no indication of when they will be returned. However, the Legal Support team will continue helping those working on the Genoa G8 trials, despite this oppressive and intimidatory atmosphere.

Contact:  info@supportolegale.org
 http://supportolegale.org

Legal Support (Supportolegale) is a network of people following the Genoa trials, both the proceedings against demonstrators at the G8 summit, as well as those against public officials accused of violence, torture and abuse of power. The Legal Support team transcribes the hearings, turns them into understandable summaries, and publishes and spreads them. It creates projects, campaigns and initiatives to spread information and raise funds. It supports the legal staff of the Genoa Legal Forum, the lawyers defending the accused and representing the claimants in the different trials.

We are in great need of funds!!!
You can donate through the Genoa Legal Forum account:

From Italy:
Intestato a: don Antonio Balletto
Banca Carige - sede centrale
numero conto: 6135980
Cod. ABI 06175
Cod. CAB 01400

From abroad:
Swift Code CRGEITGG040
IBAN: IT45 H061 7501 4000 0000 6135 980
Reason for payment: supporto legale

Paypal:  donate-glf@indymedia.org

Genoa Legal Support team (Supportolegale)
- e-mail: info@supportolegale.org (translator: karmahickman@yahoo.it)
- Homepage: http://supportolegale.org/

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. We were there - let's support the just outcome against fascism — moonbat

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech