107 indictments asked for prison violence

(ANSA) - ROME, APR 26 - Naples prosecutors on Tuesday requested indictments for 107 prison officers and penitentiary department (DAP) functionaries charged with violence against inmates in a prison at Santa Maria Capua Vetere near Caserta in April 2020.
    An acquittal was also requested, joining 12 others asked in the last few months. There were originally 120 suspects in the case.
    Tow of those charged have requested a fast-track trial.
    Those charged are accused of beating prisoners to punish them for a riot.
    The allegedly brutal punitive raid took place in the prison at Santa Maria Capua Vetere on April 6, 2020.
    Guards allegedly went on a rampage of violence to punish inmates for rioting.
    Overcrowding and COVID fears sparked riots in several prisons at the height of the first lockdown in spring 2020, when many inmates were hurt, and some died, mainly from overdoses of drugs pillaged from jail infirmaries.
    The suspects are accused of crimes include torture, abuse of authority, making false declarations and cooperation in the culpable homicide of an Algerian prisoner.
    A preliminary investigations judge (GIP) said prisoners were made to strip and kneel and beaten with guards wearing their helmets so as not to be identified in what he called "a horrible massacre".
    Some 15 men were also put into solitary without any justification, the GIP said.
    Police reportedly found chats on the suspects' phones including, before the alleged violence, saying "We'll kill them like veal calves" and "tame the beasts", and afterwards, saying "four hours of hell for them", "no one got away", and "(we used) the Poggioreale system", referring to a tough Naples prison.
    Some of the alleged rioters had their hair cut and beards shaved off.
    Justice Minister Marta Cartabia has said that CCTV footage of the violence showed that the officers had betrayed the Italian Constitution. (ANSA).