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Amnesty International Report 2000 - Italy

Head of state: Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (replaced Oscar Luigi Scalfaro in May)
Head of government: Massimo D'Alema
Capital: Rome
Population: 57.5 million
Official language: Italian
Death penalty: abolitionist for all crimes
1999 treaty ratifications/signatures: Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

There were further allegations of ill-treatment inflicted by law enforcement and prison officers. Conditions in some prisons reportedly amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Criminal proceedings opened into alleged ill-treatment were often subject to lengthy delays. By the end of 1999, no one had been committed for trial as a result of criminal investigations opened into the allegations which came to light in 1997 and 1998 of the ill-treatment, torture and unlawful killing of Somalis by members of the Italian armed forces participating in a multinational peace-keeping operation in Somalia in 1993. Several criminal proceedings were under way in connection with human rights violations committed against Italian citizens by members of the Argentine security forces in the 1970s and 1980s and as a result of past collaboration between the security forces of several South American countries. Three men imprisoned in 1997 following possibly unfair trial proceedings for participation in a politically motivated murder were granted a judicial review. Parliament approved a constitutional amendment introducing, in principle, strengthened fair trial guarantees for defendants in criminal proceedings. Enabling legislation to allow its practical application was still under parliamentary consideration at the end of 1999.

Alleged ill-treatment by law enforcement officers

There were a number of allegations of gratuitous and deliberate violence inflicted on detainees by law enforcement officers; at least one detainee died in disputed circumstances. The allegations concerned both Italian and foreign nationals, but a high proportion of the allegations received by AI continued to concern foreign nationals, many from Africa and a number of Roma. Some were reluctant to make official complaints because they feared repercussions. The government argued that, according to official figures emerging from surveys conducted by one law enforcement agency in previous years, allegations of ill-treatment by foreigners were in fact a small proportion of the total number of such allegations. It stated that "foreign citizens, especially those from outside the Community who are less familiar with the guarantees offered by the Italian legal order and who sometimes find themselves in Italian territory only for a very brief time, are inclined to turn to non-governmental organizations to complain about alleged ill-treatment rather than avail themselves of the ordinary juridical channels". The authorities appeared thus to recognize that the official statistics at their disposal were not a true reflection of the full extent of the phenomenon.

Update

In October, almost three years after two police officers were committed for trial, a court in Catanzaro found them guilty of abusing their powers and causing Grace Patrick Akpan injuries in February 1996. AI had repeatedly expressed concern to the authorities about her allegations of ill-treatment. The officers were put on probation for two months and charged with the expenses of the legal proceedings. The charges against Grace Patrick Akpan, who had been accused of refusing to identify herself to the officers and of insulting, resisting and injuring them, were dismissed.

Alleged ill-treatment in prisons

Allegations of ill-treatment by prison officers emanated from several prisons and there was concern that in some prisons, including several newly established detention centres for aliens, the overall conditions of detention might amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Chronic prison overcrowding persisted, despite continuing efforts by the authorities to address the problem. Reports of overcrowding were often accompanied by complaints of inadequate medical assistance, poor sanitation and other connected problems, including high rates of suicide, attempted suicide and self-inflicted injury. Several criminal proceedings against prison officers accused of ill-treatment in previous years were subject to excessive delays and fears were expressed that the failure of the criminal justice system to function swiftly and efficiently in such cases might be creating a climate of impunity.

• Criminal proceedings opened in 1993 into the alleged ill-treatment of inmates of Secondigliano prison, Naples, ended in the acquittal of some 60 prison officers. Separate proceedings opened in 1993 against six other officers accused of various offences, including falsifying records and instigating other officers to commit offences, were apparently still under way. In 1997 lawyers in Catania had complained that inmates of Bicocca Prison were regularly subjected to ill-treatment by prison officers and expressed concern that those involved included officers transferred from Secondigliano where they were already under investigation for alleged ill-treatment. In October, following a criminal investigation into further alleged ill-treatment of Secondigliano prisoners between June 1995 and February 1999, 20 prison officers were ordered to stand trial in 2000.

Intergovernmental organizations

In March the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination included in its principal subjects of concern "reports of acts of violence and ill-treatment by police and prison guards against foreigners and members of minorities in detention" and apparent lack of appropriate training for law enforcement officials and other public officials regarding the provisions of the Convention" on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. It recommended that Italy "strengthen its efforts towards preventing and prosecuting incidents of racial intolerance and discrimination against foreigners and Roma people", as well as "ill-treatment of foreigners and Roma in detention".

In May the UN Committee against Torture urged that "the legislative authorities... proceed to incorporate into domestic law the crime of torture as defined in article 1 of the Convention" against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment "and make provision for an appropriate system of compensation for torture victims".

The Committee highlighted its concern that "the prison system remains overcrowded and lacking in facilities which makes the overall conditions of detention not conducive to the efforts of preventing inhuman or degrading treatment", that reports of ill-treatment continued and that "many of them involved foreigners". It recommended that all prisoners' correspondence addressed to "international procedures of investigation and settlement be excluded from 'censor checks' by prison personnel or other authorities". Regarding the incidents in Somalia, the Committee expressed concern about "lack of training in the field of human rights, in particular the prohibition against torture, given to the troops participating in the peace-keeping operations and the inadequate number of military police accompanying them". The Committee considered these factors "responsible in part" for the incidents and asked that the government inform it of the progress and result of the relevant judicial proceedings.

In April, AI drew the Committee's and the government's attention to a report describing its concerns about alleged torture and ill-treatment.

Violations against Italian citizens in South America

Seven former members of the Argentine armed forces were committed for trial in absentia in connection with the abduction and murder of seven Italian citizens and the kidnapping of the child of one of them during the years of military rule in Argentina. The trial, scheduled to open in Rome in October, was postponed until December when, after one day, it was postponed until March 2000. The trial was the result of investigations opened by the Italian judiciary in 1983, following complaints lodged by relatives of "disappeared" Italian citizens. In the intervening years, AI joined relatives and civil rights groups in calling on the Italian authorities to keep the investigations open.

In July the Minister of Justice gave authorization for a criminal prosecution to be pursued against five more Argentine officers accused of the murder of three Italian citizens in a secret detention centre in Argentina. Several other criminal proceedings, in the early stages of investigation, were under way into complaints of further human rights violations committed against Italian citizens by members of the Argentine security forces and as a result of past collaboration between the security forces of several South American countries.

Adriano Sofri, Giorgio Pietrostefani and Ovidio Bompressi

In March the Brescia Appeal Court ruled on an application which Adriano Sofri, Giorgio Pietrostefani and Ovidio Bompressi - three leading members of the former extra-parliamentary left-wing group Lotta Continua (Continuous Struggle) - had lodged in December 1997, requesting a judicial review of a sentence issued by the Milan Appeal Court in 1995. The sentence had resulted in their imprisonment in January 1997, after nine years of judicial proceedings and seven trials, to serve 22-year sentences for participation in the killing of a police commissioner in Milan in 1972. The men's argument that the application contained new witness and technical evidence and that, therefore, the proceedings qualified for review had already been rejected by the Milan Appeal Court in 1998. However, the Supreme Court annulled that decision and returned the case to appeal court level for re-examination.

When the Brescia Appeal Court also ruled the application inadmissible, a further appeal was lodged with the Supreme Court which in May annulled the Brescia decision and referred the application to the Venice Appeal Court. In August the Venice Appeal Court ruled that the application was admissible and that the review should commence in that court in October. It also suspended the men's prison sentences, resulting in the release of Adriano Sofri and Giorgio Pietrostefani; Ovidio Bompressi's sentence had already been temporarily suspended on health grounds in 1998.

The judicial review was still under way at the end of 1999. AI had repeatedly expressed concern at the excessive length and complexity of the proceedings leading to the men's imprisonment. AI also expressed serious doubts about the fairness of the proceedings, including the extent to which the final verdict relied on the uncorroborated evidence of a pentito (a person benefiting from remission of sentence in return for collaboration with the judicial authorities) and whose testimony had contained contradictions and inaccuracies.

AI country reports

• Italy: A briefing for the UN Committee against Torture (AI Index: EUR 30/002/99)
• Concerns in Europe, January - June 1999: Italy (AI Index: EUR 01/002/99)