Kiwi G8 protester in London as Britons tell of police brutality

12.30 pm

As the New Zealander arrested in Italy during a police raid on anti-globalisation protesters recovered in London today, the Italian government has bowed to international pressure to look into the behaviour of its police force.

Sam Buchanan is now back in London, where he has lived for the past 18 months, after being deported from Italy overnight.

He spoke to his family in New Zealand this morning, after which his brother, Jo, said Mr Buchanan had suffered a suspected broken hand after apparently being beaten with batons by police.

The 36-year-old was among 93 people arrested during an early morning raid on a school where antiglobalisation protesters were sleeping in the early hours of Sunday.

All the protesters were initially charged with four offences, including attempted murder, but it is unlikely that the cases will ever be heard as most of those arrested are being deported from Italy.

Four Britons arrested at the G8 summit in Genoa also returned to England today with accounts of torture and brutality by the Italian police.

The British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, said he had been given assurances "at the highest level" that complaints by Britons would be investigated.

Across the Continent reports emerged of protesters being beaten, tortured and deprived of their legal rights. One German politician likened the police's behaviour at the summit to the old military junta in Argentina.

An Italian senator claimed the force had been infiltrated by fascists.

In an interview with The Independent newspaper, one of the four returning protesters, Norman Blair, said there was a frightening political dimension to the way in which activists were held for days without legal representation or consular visits.

He said that officers, some in plain clothes and wearing masks, would ask protesters: "Who is your government?" Those that answered anything other than "the police" were beaten. "It was terrifying," he said.

"It was how I imagined Chile under Pinochet. There was no sense of any kind of legal process. It was as if there were no safeguards to ensure we came out alive. I honestly feared for my life."

The Britons: Mr Blair, 38, from Newport, Daniel McQuillan, 35, and Richard Moth, 32, both from north London, and Nicola Doherty, 27, arrived home last night after being released without charge on Thursday morning (NZ time).

A fifth, Mark Covell, 33, from London, was still in hospital in Genoa with broken ribs, a punctured lung and internal bleeding.

Witnesses at the raid on school have spoken of extreme brutality by officers, but there has been no formal complaint from the British government.

Of the 93 people arrested during the raid, more than 60 needed hospital treatment.

Neither the Prime Minister nor Jack Straw has condemned the police behaviour. But Mr Straw said: "We have spoken to the Italian administration at the highest level and they have agreed that these allegations will be fully investigated as part of the wider investigation into police malpractice by the Genoa Public Prosecutor.

"We have made it clear to the representatives of those who are making these allegations that if we receive details we will make sure they are received by the Italian government and properly dealt with."

In Italy, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition resisted calls for an inquiry into the police handling of the protests, but there was a fresh call for an investigation into an alleged fascist infiltration of the police force.

Fransisco Martone, a Green Party Senator representing Genoa, told BBC Radio 4: "We have heard stories about policemen singing fascist hymns and threatening people with rape and with further violence, and we do think this behaviour has no place in a democratic society."

There was criticism of the Italian police in the German, Spanish and French press. Hans-Christian Ströbele, a senior Green Party politician in Germany, said: "I've seen boys with their heads broken and fear in their eyes. They all speak about an aggression from police forces. There has been mistreatment in police stations which reminds me of depictions of Argentina during the military dictatorship."

At Heathrow airport, the freed activists described being beaten and taken to a holding centre where they were deprived of food and sleep for 36 hours, made to stand spread-eagled for hours on end and laughed at when they asked for legal help.

Describing the raid, Mr McQuillan, who suffered head injuries and a broken wrist, said: "It was terrible – we could hear the screaming and beating going on. We were grown-up people hiding under desks. There were five or six policemen and one struck me on the head. I rolled on to the floor and they continued beating us."

Speaking to the BBC from his hospital bed, Mr Covell described being beaten in the street while trying to run away: "I ran smack into a Carabiniere. I didn't stand a chance. I was immediately hit over the head.

"Then about 10 policemen proceeded to hit me non-stop for about five minutes, kicking me, punching me, hitting me with their batons and their shields. There was no mercy. About 50 carabinieri charged past me .... As they did that, each one came running past and kicked me. For a time it was just endless. I really thought I was dying. It's a horrible thing when you hear your bones breaking inside you."

- HERALD ONLINE STAFF and INDEPENDENT