Italy condemned by the European Court for the events at the Caserma Raniero in Naples in 2001

Naples – Italy has been condemned again by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for the “inhuman and degrading” conduct of its police forces.

Today's judgment, issued by the 1st section of the ECHR, concerns the events that occurred in Naples on 17 March 2001, during a "No Global" demonstration, and is a prelude to the tragic events of the G8 in Genoa four months later.

The “kidnapping” in the Raniero Barracks and the case of the young lawyer

According to the Court of Naples, dozens of people were taken to the Caserma Raniero in what were described as “kidnapping” methods, given that none of the more than 90 people arrested were later reported for the street clashes. The detention was considered “completely illegitimate” and the treatment suffered “inhuman and degrading”.

The case examined by the ECHR was brought in 2015 by a young lawyer who, despite having the sole “guilt” of having accompanied a protester to the hospital, was mocked as a “little lawyer” by the police.

His cell phone was destroyed under the feet of an officer while he was trying to contact his father, also a lawyer. In the face of “gratuitous insults and physical abuse,” none of the police officers investigated suffered criminal or disciplinary consequences, with only some of them receiving a “written warning.”

Compensation Offer Rejected Without Official Apology

During the lengthy proceedings in Strasbourg, the Italian Government had offered the applicant 30.000 euros as compensation for the moral and material damage suffered. However, the young lawyer had made acceptance of this sum conditional on the joint formal apologies of the Italian Government and of the two officials serving at the Caserma Raniero that day. An apology which, as underlined, was never formulated, neither publicly nor privately.

The Strasbourg Court noted that “the Government further argued that what it described as ‘deplorable acts’ committed by police officers during identification operations constituted criminal offences and that the Italian State had responded adequately, through the courts, in order to restore the rule of law, which had been undermined”.

Since the Government did not contest the findings of the national courts, the European Court considered the alleged ill-treatment to be proven, stating that the applicant had been subjected to treatment contrary to Article 3 of the Convention, inhuman and degrading.

The ECHR further stated that “for an investigation to be considered effective under Article 3, it should be capable of leading to the identification and punishment of those responsible. Otherwise, the general legal prohibition of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment, despite its fundamental importance, would be ineffective in practice and in some cases it would be possible for State agents to abuse the rights of those under their control with virtual impunity.”

The ruling reiterates the importance that “criminal proceedings and conviction are not time-barred and that measures such as granting amnesty or pardon are not admissible.” Furthermore, in the event of ill-treatment by state agents, “it is important that he or she be suspended from service during the investigation or trial and dismissed in the event of conviction.”

The Court concluded that it was “not convinced that the authorities’ response, in particular as regards the suspended sentences and accessory penalties and the non-disclosure of criminal records, can be considered adequate in view of the seriousness of the acts for which the officers were convicted in their capacity as agents of the State”.

A conviction that turns the spotlight back on episodes of the past and on the need for an effective and deterrent response from the State.