Why time limits mattered after the Diaz school raid

Timeline

1. July 2001: Police raid the Diaz-Pertini school and injure Cestaro.
2. 2010–2012: The appeal court partly reverses the earlier judgment and the Court of Cassation upholds its main findings.
3. 2015: The European court finds violations concerning both torture and the criminal-law response.

What happened

The European Court of Human Rights considered the injuries of Arnaldo Cestaro, who was inside the school during the raid. It classified his treatment as torture.

Case outcomes

The court examined why the domestic proceedings failed to deliver adequate punishment for the violence. Limitation periods barred prosecution of offences relating to the ill-treatment, and the court found the legal framework inadequate to deter such abuse. European Court of Human Rights judgment summary

Full judgment translated by the Italian Ministry of Justice

From emergency shelter to crime scene

Genoa’s city council had made the Diaz-Pertini school available as overnight accommodation during the G8 summit. Cestaro was 62 when officers entered. The European court’s account records kicks and blows with truncheons, multiple fractures and lasting weakness in his right arm and leg. Italy’s Court of Cassation described the force as punitive.

Three stages of judicial review

The Genoa Court of Appeal partly overturned the first-instance judgment in July 2010. The Court of Cassation upheld its main findings in October 2012. In 2015, the European court found violations under Article 3 both for Cestaro’s treatment and for the criminal-law response. The domestic proceedings and the European judgment addressed different forms of responsibility. Official account of the Cestaro judgment