Top Italian policemen get up to five years for violent attack on G8 protesters

Some of Italy's most senior police officers have been given jail sentences of up to five years for what the prosecution called a "terrible" attack on demonstrators at the 2001 G8 meeting in Genoa and an attempted cover-up. Victims of the attack, who included several Britons, expressed delight at the ruling, which overturned many of the conclusions reached by the judges at the original trial in 2008. Mark Covell, aged 42, from Reading, who was beaten into a coma, said: "This is beyond my wildest expectations. The Italian judiciary has recognized the truth of what happened. Human rights have finally been respected here. Italians will now recognize their cops do not have immunity. But it has taken nine years, and I was at the end of my tether." It is highly unlikely that any of the officers will go behind bars. The case has taken so long that most of the offenses of which they were accused have been "timed out" by statutes of limitations. But several of the most senior defendants were also given five-year disqualifications from public office–sanctions that could prejudice or halt their careers. None was suspended after being sent for trial.