Amnesty concern over ''Gothenburg'' trials
01 August 2002
An Amnesty International (AI) report in June 2002 states that charges brought against 69 people following the demonstrations during the EU summit in Gothenburg in June 2001 resulted in 52 individuals being found guilty of criminal offences. AI expressed concern over the fact that significantly higher sentences were passed in relation to comparable events in previous years, and the extensive period of solitary confinement and denial of prompt access to legal counsel during pre-trial detention experienced by several arrested protestors. AI says that further trials are expected, including those of four police officers on charges of misconduct who had been in charge at Schillerska school, where people were alleged to have been arbitrarily detained and to have suffered ill-treatment (including kicks, beatings with batons, having their hands tied behind their backs and being made to lie face down). A report into events surrounding the summit by the Gothenburg Committee headed by former Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson is expected in December 2002.
Information gathered by a Gothenburg prisoner support group, Solidaritetsgruppen, in June 2002, gives details on the trials. The longest prison sentences passed were of two years and six months for instigating rebellion and for disturbance. At that stage, with several trials and appeals outstanding, eight people had received sentences of two years or more, twelve received sentences of between one and two years, and 13 sentences of under a year. Eight people were found not guilty and young offenders were generally punished with community service or fines, except for one case in which a Danish youth was sentenced to a month in a young offenders institution. Nineteen foreigners were charged, 13 from Denmark, three from Germany and one from Italy, Norway and the UK. Eleven were found guilty (seven Danes, two Germans, one Italian and one from the UK) and, apart from the Danes, were banned from returning to Sweden for 10 years.
In the first case referred to the Swedish supreme court 19-year-old JA from Gothenburg had his sentence reduced from one year and four months to four months. A group of eight persons got lengthy sentences (from 1 year and 4 months to 2 years and 4 months) on charges of “being involved in disturbances, instigating revolt and causing disturbances”. Prosecutors claimed that they coordinated and instigated disorder by sending text messages to protestors on the streets. They have appealed to the supreme court.
Both the protestors who received bullet wounds when police fired shots at protestors were found guilty. Twenty year old SS, a German who was shot in the leg, was sentenced to a year and eight months in prison after being charged (twice) with involvement in disturbances - a sentence that was confirmed by the supreme court refusal to consider the case. Hannes Westberg, who was shot in the stomach by police and narrowly survived after spending some weeks in a coma, received an eight-month sentence for involvement in disturbances and attacking a police officer. On the other hand, as the AI report stresses, prosecutors felt that there was not enough evidence to indicate that the police officer who shot Westberg [as he ran away] had committed a criminal offence. AI suggests that fabricated material was used against Westberg in the trial, with doctored sound recording added to a video that showed him throwing stones at police.
Amnesty International "Concerns in Europe", January - June 2002; Solidaritetsgruppen "Update on prisoners in Gothenburg", 11.6.02
ITALY/EUROPE
Solidarity with Genoa accused
Many summits have taken place since Genoa and the death of Carlos Guiliani, but those people who were victims of police brutality and subsequent prosecution have received little media attention. Preliminary proceedings are still ongoing against 300 people and police are planning to start charging people this year. Groups in different countries have started defence<