Prosecutors in Naples have appealed
against a judge's decision to deny arrest warrants and residence
bans they had requested against 29 police officers in connection
with an alleged rampage of violence to punish inmates for
rioting at the prison of Santa Maria Capua Vetere in 2020 during
the Covid lockdown.
Preliminary investigations judge (GIP) Alessia Stadio rejected
the requests - a decision appealed by prosecutors to the
re-examination court in Naples.
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.
GIP Alessia Stadio wrote in a measure released Friday in which
she rejected the pre-trial measures for the officers that they
are "not criminals but members of the security forces who, in an
event that was as brutal as exceptional, committed or helped
commit the dramatic facts for which we are proceeding".
The judge noted that the officers had acted under orders of
their superiors and that they were thus unlikely to reiterate
similar acts against detainees especially since "similar
conducts have not been reported over the past four years",
concluded the judge.
According to investigators, the 29 officers took part in the
violence at the prison of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, near
Caserta, on April 6, 2020.
The violence allegedly involved as many as 280 prison guards,
including 150 police officers.
The first part of the investigation into the violence has led to
a trial that kicked off in November 2022 against police
officers, officials with the department of penitentiary
administration and doctors working for the local ASL health
authorities.
The trial is still ongoing.
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