Eight policemen arrested for allegedly abusing protestors

Italian authorities have arrested eight police officers on charges of beating up anti-globalisation protesters inside a Naples police barracks last year after a march through the city turned violent.

Anti-globalisation activists said the arrests last night hadn’t gone far enough to address police violence during the protests. However, police reacted to the arrests with outrage, saying officers had only been defending themselves against violent demonstrators.

About 100 police officers linked arms in protest outside a Naples police station last night, and promised further demonstrations.

‘‘To speak of the forces of order as if they were bandits in uniform is like killing anew ... all those who sacrificed their lives to defend the ideals of justice and democracy,’’ Italy’s police union, SIAP, said in a statement today.

The eight officers, who were under house arrest, are charged with confining, attacking and injuring protesters, news reports said. Details on the charges and possible sentences were not available today.

The protests on March 17, 2001, occurred outside a conference on technology and government that had attracted politicians and industry leaders. Several thousand protesters participated, with some hurling stones and using sticks to hit police. Police struck at them with batons and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.

About 70 demonstrators and 50 police were injured. However, prosecutors say that the violence didn’t end in the streets.

The charges say police took several dozen protesters to a police barracks, then forced them to their knees with their faces to the wall and hands behind their heads. The police then kicked, punched, slapped and threatened the protesters, according to the charges.

Francesco Caruso, an anti-globalisation leader in Naples, argued that the eight officers were involved in a larger plan to repress his movement. ‘‘Instead of arresting the small fry, we want to know who was giving the orders,’’ he said.

Just a few months after the Naples protest, worse violence broke out in Italy during the Group of Eight summit in Genoa in July 2001. Tens of thousands of protesters marched there, with many clashing with authorities. Police shot one violent protester, and 500 other people were injured.