Italy: Convictions over eviction of Free Republic of Maddalena; No TAV respond with blockades

via contra info:

The so-called ‘No TAV mega-trial’ has finished at first instance, in which 53 comrades are involved over the eviction resistance of the Free Republic of Maddalena on June 27th, 2011, and for the attack of the construction site of Chiomonte on July 3rd that followed. Charges of causing bodily-harm and aggravated violence, resistance against custodial staff of the public authority, defacement and covering faces (masking up) became sentences which varied between a few months and four and a half years in prison for 47 defendants. Heavy sentences, but less than the requests of the prosecutors Pedrotta and Quaglino—who, on October 7th, 2014, demanded 200 years of prison in total—except for a few comrades, against whom the judge decided to tighten the screw a bit more than what was proposed by the prosecution. On the other hand, six people were acquitted of charges.

When leaving the room, the No TAV supporters present at the trial invaded and blocked the route of Corso Regina Margherita for about twenty minutes in both directions, at the point of the bunker room [the special court of Torino, built into the Vallette jail, near the beginning of the motorway], to protest against the sentences given by the judges. [Read More]