'%20id='ico-down'%20stroke='%23000000'%20stroke-width='1.5'%3e%3cg%20transform='translate(1092.250000,%20254.750000)'%3e%3cpolyline%20id='Path-2-Copy-4'%20transform='translate(5.500000,%202.750000)%20scale(1,%20-1)%20rotate(-180.000000)%20translate(-5.500000,%20-2.750000)%20'%20points='0%200%205.5%205.5%2011%200'%3e%3c/polyline%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/svg%3e){kind=small}
Strasbourg — Italy failed to properly investigate the police killing of a protester during the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday.
The Strasbourg-based court ordered Italy to pay EUR 30,000 in compensation to the parents of Carlo Giuliani and another EUR 10,000 to his sister.
The family, according to the court, said the money would go to a human rights foundation in the name of 23-year-old Giuliani, who was shot in the head by an auxiliary police officer during riots at the Group of Eight summit.
The court ruled unanimously that Italian authorities had not violated Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights regarding the use of excessive force.
The judges found that the carabiniere who shot Giuliani "had been confronted with a group of demonstrators carrying out a violent attack on the vehicle he was in, that he had issued warnings, holding his weapon in such a way that it was clearly visible, and that he had fired only when the attack had continued."
The court "agreed with the investigating judge that the use of lethal force had not exceeded the limits of what was absolutely necessary in order to avert what the carabiniere had honestly perceived to be a real and imminent danger to his life and the lives of his colleagues," a press release said.
But in a split, 4-3 decision, the judges found that Italy had violated its "procedural obligations," as the autopsy performed on Giuliani’s body had not permitted to establish with certainty the trajectory of the fatal bullet.
The public prosecutor had also prematurely authorised Giuliani’s family to cremate the body before receiving the results of the autopsy, making it impossible to ever conduct other analyses, the court said.
The court also said the internal investigation was limited to examining whether those directly involved in the shooting should be held responsible, instead of trying to identify any shortcomings in the planning and management of public-order operations.
The G8 summit of wealthy nations in the northwestern city of Genoa in July 2001 was marred by violent anti-globalisation protests that left several hundred people injured and caused millions of euros in damages.
AFP/Expatica