G8 violence: Ministers under fire

Police lead away a man injured in the riots in Genoa

ROME, Italy -- Pressure is mounting on the Italian government to respond to allegations that police beat protesters at the G8 summit in Genoa and denied them their human and legal rights.

As eyewitness accounts in media across Europe and criticism from parliamentarians and human rights groups poured in, Genoa's prosecutor's office opened a third investigation into alleged police brutality.

But an opposition demand to set up a parliamentary committee to investigate the Genoa events was rejected by the centre-right ruling coalition headed by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

One protester, 23-year-old Carlo Giuliani, was shot dead by police and more than 231 people were injured in two days of violence in the Mediterranean port town. Police initially arrested 280, many of them foreign, though many have now been freed. Damage has been estimated at $45 million.

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Giuliani was the first person to die in a demonstration in Italy in 25 years and the first ever to die in violence linked the anti-globalisation protests that have become a feature of international summits in the past two years.

A judicial source told Reuters on Thursday that prosecutors would investigate possible charges of assault, bodily harm and abuse of office by police on activists detained in jails.

Other inquiries are concentrating on a police raid on a school used as sleeping quarters of umbrella protest group the Genoa Social Forum (GSF) and alleged beatings at a police station.

They are part of a whirlwind of investigations after demonstrations drew more than 200,000 protesters to Genoa.

"There has been mistreatment in police stations which reminds me of the depictions in Argentina during the military dictatorship," senior German Greens politician Hans-Christian Stroebele told Germany's FAZ business radio after visiting German activists detained in Genoa.

The German government has also expressed concern. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Germany would contact the Italian authorities, if necessary.

Sharp criticism of alleged police beatings has also come from Italian opposition politicians, who filed a parliamentary motion asking for Interior Minister Claudio Scajola to resign.

Scajola has praised the police for acting with professionalism and said they had the government's full support. Police chief Gianni De Gennaro said individual officers would be punished if they had committed abuses.

Victim: Extreme violence of police

Accounts of alleged police beatings were carried by several European newspapers, including El Pais, Le Monde and the Berliner Zeitung.

A witness of the police raid against the GSF school has told Reuters he would file a complaint against the police's behaviour.

Michael Gieser, 35, a freelance economic adviser and business trainer from Luxembourg, said: "When police came in, we all laid down on the floor face down with arms and legs spread without resisting.

"They took advantage of our position to hit us with batons, kick us, and hit us very hard with extreme violence."

About 92 people were arrested -- and later released, mostly without being charged -- in the raid and many injured. Police, who seized several weapons, said they entered the school because they thought violent protesters were hiding there.

Police said some protesters had resisted arrest and attacked police officers. The GSF denies this.

London-based human rights group Amnesty International complained some detainees had not been allowed to contact family, lawyers or consulates until three days after the raid.