Shocking new revelations emerge from the Milan Prosecutor's Office's investigation into alleged torture and mistreatment at the Beccaria juvenile prison. A note from the Regional Investigative Unit of the Penitentiary Police, filed in the case file, details the abuse suffered by a 15-year-old inmate on March 8th.
The images from the internal cameras of the prison tell of a “bloody scene” that led to the arrest of 13 officers and the suspension of eight others.
The episode of March 8th
The 15-year-old, who had previously suffered cuts “on his arms,” was first “led out of the cell” by four officers and then dragged down the stairs, “also pulling him by his bleeding arm,” by one of them.
Two of the officers then allegedly pushed him “against the wall” and hit him “repeatedly in the head and chest” until “he fell to the ground.” At that point, one of the officers allegedly hit him, while he was on the ground, again “with numerous kicks.”
Camera images
The investigators' note reconstructs the phases of the alleged violence frame by frame. The Beccaria cameras show the 15-year-old being led out of the cell by the agents, resisting the escort. "Some bleeding cuts on the left arm are clearly visible."
The footage then shows the boy walking back to his cell with a bandage on his arm, after being treated in the infirmary. But before that, one of the officers is seen “throwing him against the wall, slapping him,” while “dragging him and unbalancing him with his right hand.” The 15-year-old “falls to the ground” and the officer “persists with a kick with his left foot.”
Another camera “unmistakably” captures the moment in which the officer “throws” the 15-year-old against the wall and “slaps him.” The “bloody” scene is “partially visualized” by a camera near the infirmary: it shows “a mattress placed on the floor” on which the boy “falls.”
The episode of March 8 is just one of many contested against the Beccaria agents. The investigations of the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office led to the arrest of 13 agents and the suspension of eight others. The crimes contested range from torture to mistreatment of minors, from personal injury to false attestation.
The images from the cameras and the testimonies collected by the investigators offer a chilling picture of the violence that allegedly occurred inside the Beccaria juvenile prison. Now it will be up to the judiciary to shed light on what happened and establish the responsibilities of those who committed such brutal acts.
