Complaints Mount Over Genoa Arrests

Italy is facing growing diplomatic pressure from the United States and Austria over the treatment of protesters at last month’s Group of 8 summit in Genoa, and an international lawyer said Thursday that lawsuits could be forthcoming.

The United States said Wednesday that it had used official diplomatic channels to express concern about the treatment of three U.S. citizens injured as they were arrested following the mass demonstrations at the summit of leading industrialized nations.

The United States is also concerned about a 21-year-old student, Susanna Thomas, who was arrested with about 25 members of an Austrian theater group shortly after the summit. She is still in custody and is charged with associating with a violent anarchist group.

The concerns mounted as the head of Italy’s police force admitted in a parliamentary inquiry Wednesday that officers had used excessive force on some protesters, particularly during a midnight raid on a school serving as a headquarters for protest groups.

An American lawyer in Rome said that admission, coupled with a growing body of evidence that protesters were kicked and beaten with batons, could open the way for criminal and civil suits against individual police officers.

“Excessive use of force is not only a civil offense, it is a criminal offense in Italy,” said Peter Alegi, an international lawyer who has worked in Italy for 35 years.

Earlier this week, Austrian President Thomas Klestil appealed to his Italian counterpart for the early release of 16 Austrians, part of the theater group called Publix Theater, who were arrested with Thomas.

The prisoners’ Austrian lawyer has said the men were violently abused during their arrest while women were subjected to psychological abuse and harassment.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington on Wednesday that the United States had expressed its concern and was waiting for the results of the parliamentary inquiry.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Rome said further representation could be made to the Italian government if it appeared that U.S. citizens, four of whom are still being held, were being denied their rights.

In all, 10 Americans were arrested in connection with the protests. Six, including the three who were injured in the raid on the school, have been released.