Agent kicked during a demonstration in Turin, the accused did not participate in the attack

Images of the policeman surrounded, knocked down and kicked by the demonstrators had gone around the web. And they had become the symbol of the violence committed in Turin on 31 January 2026 during the procession in favor of Askatasuna, the historic social center of the autonomous area evacuated a few weeks earlier because it was considered the crossroads of antagonistic extremism. Today the trial for that episode ended: Angelo Simionato, 22 years old, from the province of Grosseto, was nearby and was perfectly recognizable by the red jacket he was wearing among a sea of ​​black jackets, but he did not participate in that attack and for this reason he was acquitted.

The young man (the only one to have been identified so far) was arrested the following night with the 'deferred detention' mechanism and placed under house arrest. The prosecutor's office asked for four years in prison, the magistrate Francesca Morelli gave him 12 months' probation but only because, at other times, he was mixed up with the approximately 400 demonstrators who, in the long hours of urban guerrilla warfare, threw stones and paper bombs towards the police (103 wounded were counted). Other files have been opened on the clashes of January 31st. The main one resulted in sixteen precautionary and restrictive orders. The most serious accusation, brought against one of the demonstrators, is attempted murder for the burning of a police van with the driver trapped on board. Simionato remained the only person under investigation for the beating.

The agent, Alessandro Calista, serving in the mobile department of Padua, was saved by a colleague. The following day Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni went to visit him in hospital. "My team - he said - was attacked on multiple fronts. I was pushed, grabbed by the arms and dragged for several metres. They took away my helmet and shield, and then they hit me on the head and body. I could face two or three of them, but not all together". The crudeness of the video caused a sensation and Simionato ended up at the center of what his lawyers defined as "a media pillory that lasted months". The young man, in addition to having a clean criminal record, was not linked to antagonistic groups but there was no doubt about the recognition: the red jacket was a signature. "I was running away through the crowd - he said - and when I turned around I saw a policeman on the ground. There were people on him and I walked away". "We are satisfied - comments the lawyer Claudio Novaro, who was supported by his colleague Elisabetta Montanari - because a judge has re-established the truth. The careful examination of the images and testimonies could not lead to different conclusions".