Outrage in Italy over brutal beating of detainees by prison guards | More than 50 police officers were arrested or legally notified following an investigation

A wave of indignation in Italy after the dissemination of images of prison officers brutally assaulting several inmates after protesting against measures against the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020.

The video broadcast by the local newspaper Tomorrow, shows a beating recorded on April 6, 2020 at the prison of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, near Naples, Campania, southern Italy. The posted video is approximately six minutes long and was made from footage from various surveillance cameras inside the prison.

In footage from one of the cameras, we see how the guards band together to beat the inmates, creating corridors through which they force the inmates to pass and receive beatings from the guards. The inmates try to protect themselves from the guards who hit them on the head, kick and kneel. Some fall, crawl, scream in pain. Among the inmates, there is one in a wheelchair who is beaten by one of the guards with blackjack.

The Minister of Justice, Marta Cartabia, summoned urgently the head of the prison administration and the director general of prisons to examine the case. “They betrayed the Constitution,” Cartabia lamented before Parliament on Wednesday.

Investigation and arrests

The prosecution opened an investigation last year after complaints against several prison guards for violence committed in the aftermath of a protest movement over the presence of a positive case of covid-19 among the detainees. At this time, special contingents arrived from the city of Naples.

As a result of the June survey of last year, 52 prison staff arrested or received legal notifications for their involvement in torture and violence against detainees. A total of 110 people are under investigation. Among them are the head of the prison police, three inspectors, two commissioners. The regional director of the prison administration has been suspended.

Equipped with masks and riot helmets, officers began a brutal beating which was recorded by prison cameras. Kicks, punches and slaps to people deprived of their liberty. Some beatings continued and many detainees still had visible injuries 10 days after the clashes. After the publication of the images, the general secretary of Sappe, the Autonomous Union of the Prison Police, Donato Capece, denounced “the unacceptable media pillory for the suspects of Santa María Capua Vetere”.

According to the newspaper Reformist, prison guards took cover by making false accusations of resistance against 14 inmates. “These accusations were brought by several officers and agents of the penitentiary police who drew up a report in connection with the violence which took place in the prison of San Marino on April 6, 2020”, reports the morning. At the same time, he adds that “according to the investigators – who collected the testimonies of more than 70 detainees – the injuries appearing in the medical reports were not caused by the detainees, but were the result of violence exerted by the detainees. same officers with punches, slaps, kicks and knees to detainees ”.

The leader of the Democratic Party (center-left), Enrico Letta, called the violence intolerable and unworthy of a civilized country. The right, on the other hand, sympathized with the agents, accusing the newspaper Domani of having published photos of the accused. Far-right La Liga leader Matteo Salvini announced he would visit the prison as a sign of closeness to the officers.