A "full-blown" riot broke out Thursday
at Santa Maria Capua Vetere Jail near Naples, prison officers'
union UILPA Polizia Penitenziaria said.
"Extremely serious riots, with inmates allegedly barricading
some detention sections after vandalising them and, it would
seem, temporarily detaining a couple of prison police officers,
are reportedly taking place at the Santa Maria Capua Vetere
prison, which has already been the scene of very serious events
in the past," said UILPA General Secretary Gennarino De Fazio.
"The riots, according to the still disjointed news reaching us,
are said to be a real riot and reportedly affect the entire
Volturno wing with about 250 inmates present".
Last July all 105 prison officers, penitentiary officials and
local health agency officials were sent to trial over a brutal
punitive raid on inmates at a prison at the prison near Caserta
north of Naples on 6 April 2020.
The trial into the violence, which was allegedly meted out as
punishment for a riot, began on November 7.
Guards allegedly went on a rampage of violence to punish inmates
for rioting.
Overcrowding and COVID fears sparked riots in several prisons at
the height of the first lockdown in spring 2020, when many
inmates were hurt, and some died, mainly from
overdoses of drugs pillaged from jail infirmaries.
The defendants are accused of crimes including torture, abuse of
authority, making false declarations and cooperation in the
culpable homicide of an Algerian prisoner.
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 into solitary without any
justification, the GIP said.
Police reportedly found chats on the suspects' phones including,
before the alleged violence, saying "We'll kill them like veal
calves" and "tame the beasts", and afterwards, saying "four
hours of hell for them", "no one got away", and "(we used) the
Poggioreale system", referring to a tough Naples prison. Some of
the alleged rioters had their hair cut and beards shaved off.
Former Justice Minister Marta Cartabia has said that CCTV
footage of the violence showed that the officers had betrayed
the Italian Constitution.
There have been other instances of warders allegedly torturing
inmates in other prisons across Italy.
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