Police Officers Charged With Torture in Verona, Italy

19-06-2023

Laura Libertini

Europe and Human Rights Researcher

Global Human Rights Defence

On June 6, 2023, five policemen were arrested in Verona as they were accused of torture, grave injury, embezzlement, refusal and acts of omission and false public ideological act. These crimes were allegedly committed between July 2022 and March 2023. According to the allegations, officers have beaten people stopped on the street for routine checks, - mostly homeless people and migrants - subsequently falsifying official reports in such a way as to remove any responsibility and suspicion. Moreover, two of the five suspects are also charged with racist hate crimes against black persons and African migrants. Of course, this is not an isolated incident: on top of the five people arrested, a dozen more officers are under investigation. 

Furthermore, it has emerged that a couple of police officers forced a person that at the moment was in custody for identification purposes, to urinate on the floor, pushing him into a corner only to use him “as a mop to clean the floor”. Moreover, investigators reported that migrants were pepper-sprayed in their eyes and were hit in their heads until they passed out. One of the agents boasted to his girlfriend for beating up the victims, who suffered physical violence other  than xenophobic and racist insults. These phone calls have been intercepted by the prosecutors working on the case. 

Ilaria Cucchi, senator of the Greens and Left Alliance, whose brother was arrested and beaten up to death by two police officers in 2009, reported that these incidents are increasing day by day, requiring a prompt and preventive action against police abuses, for instance by adding a police ID number and bodycams. Episodes like the one occurred in Verona are not isolated: at the beginning of June, members of the border police force were investigated for their role in a migrants’ shipwreck off Italia’s southern coasts, killing more than 90 people that were seeking refuge in Italy.

Sources and further readings:

Sky TG24, (June 6, 2023). Verona, cinque poliziotti arrestati per tortura e pestaggio in questura. Sky TG24. Retrieved on June 19, 2023 from https://tg24.sky.it/cronaca/2023/06/06/poliziotti-arrestati-questura-verona Tondo, L, (June 7, 2023). Five italian police accused of torturing migrants and homeless people. The Guardian. Retrieved on June 19, 2023 from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/07/five-italian-police-accused-of-torturing-migrants-and-homeless-people