Italy's top police official admitted today that police used excessive force during the Group of Eight summit in Genoa, when three days of violence left a protester dead and the city in tatters.
Giving evidence to a parliamentary inquiry, national police chief Mr Gianni De Gennaro said police officers did occasionally use excessive force, but only when they were provoked. Incidents of brutality would be investigated, he said.
The guerrilla-like conditions created by violent and criminal instigators in some cases provoked an excessive use of force by police units, that may be true, he said in a written statement.
And in some other very isolated cases, there was (unprovoked) unlawful conduct, which will be rigorously looked into.
There has been a flood of allegations of police brutality since the summit, with many protesters saying they were beaten while lying defensively on the ground or when they were clearly standing apart from the core of violent demonstrations.
On the first day of the July 20-22 meeting, a 23-year-old protester, one of about 20 who were attacking a police vehicle, was shot dead by a young paramilitary police officer.
Other concerns have focused on the nature of a midnight raid on a school which was acting as a headquarters for protester groups, in which 62 people were injured and 90 arrested.
PA