Officer kicked in Turin clashes, defendant acquitted, did not participate in assault

Last January 31, during an antagonistic demonstration in favor of the Askatasuna social center in Turin, a policeman was surrounded and kicked by a group of demonstrators. For that episode, Angelo Simionato, a 22-year-old from the province of Grosseto, was arrested under the deferred flagrant mechanism, but today he was acquitted of the charge of having participated in the attack.

The prosecutor had asked for four years in prison.

The young man was given a year's probation because, according to what was gathered from the device, he was held responsible for throwing an object at another time during the event. The policeman's case caused a stir also because the video documenting the incident went viral on the web. The following day Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni went to visit the agent in hospital.

"After months of media pillory - comments the lawyer Claudio Novaro, who defended the twenty-two year old together with his colleague Elisabetta Montanari - a judge has re-established the truth. A careful examination of the images and testimonies could not lead to anything other than an acquittal: our client had nothing to do with the attack".