Intelligence chief G8 conviction

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Source: ANSA

Genoa, June 17 - A Genoa court gave the head of Italy's intelligence services a two-year prison sentence on Thursday for his role in trying to cover up police brutality during the Group of Eight summit in 2001. Genoa's Court of Appeal upheld a challenge by the public prosecutor's office against last November's acquittal of Gianni De Gennaro, who was the national police chief between 2000 and 2007. The judges concluded that De Gennaro had been involved in pressuring Genoa's head of police in 2001 to change his testimony in a trial against officers for violence against demonstrators. The appeals court also overturned the acquittal of the ex-head of the Genoa branch of the Digos security police, Spartaco Mortola, accused of the same offence. The court gave him a 16-month sentence. The sentences of both men have been suspended for five years.

The judges overseeing the first trial last year dismissed the charges against De Gennaro and Mortola for lack of evidence.

The man alleged to have changed his testimony as a result of the pressure, Francesco Colucci, has been charged with perjury and will stand trial separately. Colucci has always denied being pressured to give false testimony and insists he told the truth during a trial against police officers involved in a night raid. Three people were left comatose and 26 had to be taken to hospital after the raid, which gained headlines worldwide.

Lawyers for De Gennaro and Mortola, who is now deputy head of police in Turin province, voiced shock at the decision and said they would take the matter up with Italy's supreme court. "It is a surprising sentence. We will appeal to the Court of Cassation," said one of De Gennaro's representatives, Carlo Biondi. "I'm stunned," said Mortola's lawyer, Pier Giovanni Iunca.

Read more: http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/english/2010/06/17/visualizza_new.html_1823587090.html