Italian Prime Minister Mr Silvio Berlusconi today said there would be no government cover-up on investigations into allegations of police brutality at last weekend's Group of Eight summit in Genoa.
|
"As far the government is concerned, we will not cover up anything", Mr Berlusconi said in the opening comments of his address to the upper house of parliament, the Senate, on the outcome of the G8 summit.
"If there were excesses . . . there will be no cover-up for those who violated the law," he said. "But one must not confuse those who did the attacking and those who were attacked".
Mr Berlusconi's government is under increased pressure at home and abroad to respond to allegations that demonstrators were brutally beaten and their human and legal rights violated.
Magistrates have begun several investigations into alleged police brutality. One demonstrator was shot dead and over 230 injured in two days of violence. Police initially arrested 280 people, many of them foreign, athough many have now been freed.