Italy: G8-Genoa policemen’s trial suspended as planted molotov cocktails disappear

One of the most significant incidents during the three-days of police violence against protestors that marked the G8 summit in Genoa on 19-21 July 2001, saw the beating and arrest of 93 activists who were sleeping in the Diaz school, against whom allegations of criminal association aimed at destruction and committing violent acts intent were made.

These were partly based on the fabrication of evidence, particularly the planting of two molotov cocktails in the school after the police raid had started. The molotov cocktails, which a police officer had confessed to planting in the school on orders from Pietro Troiani, the deputy police chief in Genoa, were used to charge the occupants with possession of explosives and to justify the raid (see Statewatch, vol. 13 no. 5, August-October 2003).

On 17 January 2007, it surfaced during a hearing in the trial of 29 police officers facing charges in relation to the raid including violence and the fabrication of evidence, that the molotov cocktails have disappeared. While prosecutors and lawyers acting on behalf of the victims of the raid claim that this is not overly significant because all the necessary tests on the bottles have been run and there is extensive documented evidence of them, including photographs “taken from all angles”, lawyers defending the officers argue that “photographs can never substitute the material evidence of a crime, which must be physically recognised”.

Repubblica, 18.1.2007; il manifesto, 19.1.2007.