Italian police on Monday arrested
52 prison officers on suspicion of mistreating prisoners in
quelling a riot sparked by a case of COVID-19 among inmates in
the middle of the first virus lockdown last year.
Naples police sent in special penitentiary police forces after
the April 6 riot at the jail at Santa Maria Capua Vetere near
Caserta north of Naples.
The special forces are suspected of brutality and may also face
charges of torture in the methods used to put down the riot and
mistreat inmates after it, judicial sources said.
Warder unions SPP and USPP called the arrests "disproportionate"
and "incomprehensible".
Inmates rights group Antigone said full light must be shed on
the violence.
A preliminary investigations judge (GIP) said prisoners were
made to strip and kneel and beaten with guards wearing their
helmets so as not to be identified in what he called "a horrible
massacre".
Some 15 men were also put in the slammer without any
justification, the GIP said.
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