Three more freed in Genoa

Three British protesters held by Italian police following the G8 summit in Genoa were released without charge tonight, the British Foreign Office said.

Jonathan Blair, 38, from Newport, and Daniel MacQuillan, 35, have left the police station in Pavia, northern Italy, where they were being held.

Mark Covell, 33, from London, who is in hospital being treated for internal bleeding and broken ribs, is no longer under arrest.

Mr MacQuillan’s lawyer, Gilberto Paganni, said Daniel had been released because the judge had decided his arrest was illegal.

Mr Paganni said he was ‘‘astonished’’ at Mr MacQuillan’s treatment by officers who refused to allow him to make a single phone call while in custody.

‘‘I have never seen something like that in my professional life,’’ he said.

Mr Paganni called the incident ‘‘a suspension of constitutional guarantees in our country’’.

Consular staff were expecting to speak to the two remaining protesters after they have gone before examining magistrates.

Richard Moth, 32, from north London, is at the police centre in Pavia, and his girlfriend, Nicola Doherty, 27, is at a separate centre in Voghera.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: ‘‘Consular staff are hoping to pay them a visit tonight. We will have more information about whether they have been charged with any offences after we have spoken to them.

‘‘We do not know whether they have seen examining magistrates yet.’’

Until today, four of the demonstrators were not allowed to see consular staff or lawyers since they were arrested in a raid on the headquarters of a protest group on Saturday.

Mr Covell has already been seen once by the consul, on Sunday morning, shortly after he was admitted to hospital.

Two others arrested during the summit, Lawrence Miles, 25, and John Colin Blair, 19, originally from Ballymena, Northern Ireland, were earlier freed by police.