“Now I’ll show you how many bangs on the door come on, boom boom boom boom […] and I laughed like a madman”. This is how one of the policemen of the Verona police station spoke to his girlfriend in an interception, arrested with four other colleagues for torture. In a dialogue, contained in the ordinance, it is understood that the abuses took place away from video surveillance cameras. “I left the door open for him so that he could go out because I know the camera is inside […] I put on the glove, I loaded a cue amo’, bam, he closes his eyes, he ended up with stone on the ground, he stayed there […] I threw it right, I said background now, bam […] fuck what a pine cone I gave him”. In another dialogue the same policeman says: “I have patience, only then since I had already pardoned him before, I said ok, today you have to take them from me too“.
“From these dialogues – writes the investigating judge Livia Magri – one can deduce unequivocally the custom in the unjustified use of physical violence by suspects on subjects subjected to control or detention”.
Officer urinated on the victim on the ground
One of the policemen arrested in Verona had on one occasion also urinated on a person in their custody “to wake him up”, emerges from the order that led to house arrest 5 policemen of the Verona police station accused of acts of violence between July 2022 and March 2023, against persons in their custody. In addition to the crime of torture, the five suspects were also charged, for various reasons, with the crimes of injury, forgery, omission of official documents, embezzlement and abuse of office.
In spasms he screamed for help and the officers laughed
“It is, undeniably, a plurality of behaviors integrating repeated violence that heralds ‘acute physical suffering’, which can be deduced not only from the words of the offended person, but are also crystallized from the captured footage, which immortalize” the victim “in the throes of spasms and contractions, left to his fate by police personnel”.
“As already pointed out, this denigrating and belittling act certainly met with approval and arousedhilarity of the other policemen present – we read – so much so that none of the other policemen gave the slightest sign of disappointment, carrying on even afterwards, as we have seen, a coherent attitude of mockery towards the offended person, having to remember that the operatives to whom ” the victim “addressed showing suffering and asking for help beyond the plexiglass barrier they made gestures that meant they didn’t care about his state; and that, in a certain phase, as proven also by the videos, one of the operants enjoyed blinding the victim with his torch “while the others laughed”.
“Power abuse”
“It is undeniable that all suspects have betrayed his function, compressing the rights and freedoms of subjects subject to their authority, offending their dignity as persons, themselves creating disorder and compromising public safety, committing crimes rather than preventing them, evidently taking advantage of the position they hold, even committing ideological falsehoods in deeds faithful public with worrying ease”, continues the ordinance. In addition to the crime of torture, the five suspects were also charged, for various reasons, with the crimes of injury, forgery, omission of official documents, embezzlement and abuse of office. “It is evident – writes the investigating judge of Verona – how the abuse of powers connected to the function or service has not only allowed the suspects to more easily seize the opportunities for committing crimes, but has also constituted, as effectively underlined in the request , a sort of ‘screen’ under which to shield one’s responsibilities”.
“Abuses against foreigners and weak subjects”
“A bitter observation – writes the investigating judge – is that for which the abuses, harassments and abuses carried out by the suspects appear to have involved, almost exclusively, subjects of foreign nationality, homeless, or suffering from serious addictions to alcohol or drugs, therefore subjects particularly ‘weak’”.
A “circumstance – underlines Magri – which, on the one hand, has allowed the suspects to more easily overcome any resistance from their victims, on the other hand has strengthened the conviction of the same suspects to remain immune from any negative consequences for their conducted, since it was not foreseeable, in their perspective, that any of the offended persons could decide to present a complaint or lawsuit (as indeed confirmed by the events) or that in any case could be considered reliable and more reliable than the trustworthy deeds signed by the suspects themselves’ ‘.
The Quaestor: “Serious facts, scrupulous investigation”
“The disputed facts are serious. The investigations were carried out by policemen during the investigation which lasted several months. And the reason for the duration is that under the direction of the judicial authority, with which there has been perfect collaboration, all efforts have been put into the field to gather the evidence necessary to adequately support the accusation in court . The procedural truth will be that which will emerge from the trial”, Verona commissioner Roberto Massucci told Adnkronos. “We were very careful to be scrupulous – underlines the commissioner – to collect all the technical and testimonial elements necessary to carry out these investigations which resulted in an order from the investigating judge for five policemen. Over time I made sure to replace all those policemen from the police department who may not have acted but were present”.
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