Askatasuna: officer assaulted, they surrounded me and struck me from behind

Rome, 4 February (LaPresse) – A sudden, violent hail of stones rained down on the police contingent. In a matter of minutes, stones, bottles, manhole covers and fireworks were thrown at officers during the march on 31 January in Turin. Alessandro Calista, a police officer who found himself in the crosshairs of the most aggressive group, was caught up in the chaos. In the complaint filed at the police station, and reported in the pre-trial detention order issued by the Turin court, which validated the arrests of the three individuals detained after the clashes at the pro-Askatasuna demonstration, he recounts being “grabbed by the arms, repeatedly kicked in the back and dragged several metres beyond the line of the contingent as he was returning to rejoin the rest of the team”. “All around me,” continues the officer on duty with the Padua mobile unit, “my colleagues continued to be pelted with objects thrown by the demonstrators. I could have defended myself against two or three people, but against all of them it was impossible”. He emphasises that it was the intervention of a colleague who managed to rescue him from the attack that prevented worse consequences.