2009-08-25

August 25th Genoa -- London

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European court raps Italy over G8 Genoa protests

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - The European Court of Human Rights condemned Italy on Tuesday for failing to carry out a thorough investigation into the death of a protestor who was shot by police at a G8 summit in Genoa in 2001.

The court awarded 40,000 euros ($57,160) compensation to the protestor's family. But it decided unanimously that the police officer had not used disproportionate force when he fired during an attack by demonstrators on his vehicle.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE57O5K220090825

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Genoa killing 'was self-defence'

By Duncan Kennedy

Protests at the G8 summit in Genoa, Italy, in 2001
Dozens of officers have faced trial over their conduct during the protests

An Italian police officer who shot dead an anti-globalisation protester in 2001 acted in self-defence, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.

Mario Placanica was one of thousands of security force members who fought with demonstrators at the G8 summit.

But the court ruled the Italian government failed to carry out a full investigation of the incident.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8221227.stm

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Memos reveal how police investigated Ian Tomlinson's death at G20 protests

Four months after Ian Tomlinson died at the G20 protests, on 1 April, his family has accused police of mounting a cover-up. For six days the investigation into his death was run by City of London police, which assigned the family a liaison officer. He was Harry Adams, of the force's counter-terrorism and specialist directorate. Now extracts from his personal logs, which give an hour-by-hour update of his contacts with the family, have been seen by the Guardian. Key passages are published here, along with contextual explanations by Paul Lewis

More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/aug/07/ian-tomlinson-death-police-memos

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The repression against "insurrectionary anarchists" and "autonomes" continues

On 16 and 17 July [2009], three German comrades were summoned by judges in Berlin and Hamburg, in the framework of the "Tarnac Affair." In Berlin, following a gathering in front of the French Embassy, they were brought before a judge to whom, in conformity with what they said, they made no statements. The German authorities were responding to the rogatory commission launched by Judge Fragnoli, who based his suspicions about the two Berliners on the fact that, ten years ago, they had been arrested and released following a campaign that sabotaged train lines to protest against the shipments of nuclear wastes over them.

Two weeks ago, in Perouse [Italy], two companions were thrown in jail, following a vast operation by the media and the police that merits attention. While the newspapers (Le Nouvel Observateur in France and all of the Italian press) congratulated themselves that two dangerous terrorists had been arrested at the moment they were trying to sabotage train lines, it came out that, in fact, it was 16 months ago that the two companions had been spotted by the Italian federal police not far from a railroad line and that the police didn't arrest them so as to be able to continue to surveill them.

More: http://libcom.org/news/recent-tarnac-9-arrests-italy-germany-22072009