Askatasuna clashes: 19 pre-trial detention orders sought. Attempted murder charge also brought
The Turin police are carrying out the measures ordered by the judicial authorities. The investigation centres on the two hours of unrest on Corso Regina Margherita, during which a police vehicle was set alight and an officer was struck with a hammer
Key points
Fourteen house searches have been carried out in various parts of Italia, eight months on from the march that turned Corso Regina Margherita into a scene of clashes. Since the early hours of this morning, the Turin State Police have been carrying out raids on activists from the anti-establishment movement as part of the investigation into the events of 31 January, when the national demonstration against the eviction of the Askatasuna social centre descended into violence against the police.
Also charged with attempted murder
In the same case file, the public prosecutor requested 19 precautionary measures in relation to offences allegedly committed during the march.
The charges for which the Turin Public Prosecutor’s Office has sought 19 precautionary measures against anti-establishment activists in connection with the clashes also include attempted murder.
The episodes
The community centre had been cleared on 18 December. The building on Corso Regina Margherita had been occupied for around thirty years, and the demonstration at the end of January had been organised as three marches, setting off from Porta Nuova, Porta Susa and Palazzo Nuovo. On the fringes of the demonstration, groups of protesters had attacked police officers with flares, sparklers, firecrackers, stones and bottles. The disturbances continued for around two hours, concentrated mainly in the area around the former site of the community centre, where masked protesters set fire to rubbish bins and a police vehicle. The most serious incident involved a police officer who was surrounded and attacked by a group of protesters and struck with a hammer.
Judicial inquiry
Legal proceedings began in the days immediately following the events. On 4 February, at the remand hearing, the investigating magistrate in Turin released two of the three individuals arrested in connection with the incidents, subject to a requirement to sign in regularly, after they had been detained for resisting a public official. The Public Prosecutor’s Office subsequently appealed against the judge’s decision not to order pre-trial detention for the three protesters, a decision welcomed by the police union SAP.
