Released Genoa prisoners prepare to fly home

Four of the five British protesters held by Italian police following the G8 summit in Genoa were today flying home after they were released without charge.

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

Jonathan Blair, 38, from Newport, Daniel MacQuillan, 35, and Richard Moth, 32, from north London, and his girlfriend Nicola Doherty, 27, were flying back this morning, a Foreign Office spokeswoman said.

They were released from two police centres in northern Italy yesterday but one of the British protesters, Mark Covell, remained in an Italian hospital where he was being treated for internal bleeding and broken ribs.

Anti-capitalism demonstrator Mr Covell, 33, from London, is no longer under arrest and claims he was beaten unconscious by Italian police.

Speaking from his hospital bed in Genoa, he said he found himself surrounded by hundreds of Italian officers and has not been able to walk since the incident.

He denied any involvement in violence at the G8 summit and said he hoped to leave the country as quickly as possible and would be taking legal action.

Mr Covell said he ran into an Italian police officer, adding: ‘‘I didn’t stand a chance. I was immediately hit over the head. He then pushed me up against the wall and I fell over.

‘‘Then about 10 policemen proceeded to hit me non-stop for about five minutes, kicking me, punching me, hitting me with their batons and their shields. There was no mercy.’’

He said paramedics had told him the police had raided the building because they thought there were riots inside, which he said was untrue.

‘‘For a time it was just endless. I really though I was dying. It’s a horrible thing when you hear your bones breaking inside you,’’ he said.

‘‘After a while I just tried to keep one eye open and stay alive and then finally blacked out and couldn’t remember any more until I woke up in hospital.’’

Mr Covell denied reports he was a ‘‘mastermind’’ behind the protests, which brought violent clashes to the streets for several days during the summit.

The other four protesters were understood to have stayed at detention centres after their release while the Italian authorities arranged for deportation flights.

Their supporters have claimed the group were asleep in the headquarters of the protest group, the Genoa Social Forum, when the building was raided by police.

Until yesterday, four of the demonstrators had not been allowed to see consular staff or lawyers since they were arrested in the raid on Saturday.

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

Mr MacQuillan’s lawyer, Gilberto Paganni, said Daniel had been released because the examining magistrate 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 said his client and the other detained protesters were treated in a way ‘‘not to be expected from a democratic country’’.

‘‘They have been beaten by police, they stayed two days without food, they didn’t call home they were really frightened and scared some of them were crying.’’

Mr MacQuillan had a flesh wound on his left arm, and legs and head injuries ‘‘because he was beaten with a stick’’, he added.

Jonathan Neale of Globalise Resistance, the anti-capitalist group to which Miss Doherty and Mr Moth belonged, claimed the pair were beaten while in police custody.

He also claimed pressure was exerted ‘‘from on top’’ to keep them out of the public eye.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said any allegations of assault would need to be investigated.

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell called on Mr Straw to protest to the Italian government at the delay in granting consular access to the five.