- guardian.co.uk, Sunday July 29 2001 01.21 BST
- The Observer, Sunday July 29 2001
Serious questions were raised over the handling of the affair by British diplomats and the role of the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw. Straw has claimed that British consular staff were denied access to the detainees. But The Observer has learnt that, in spite of repeated pleas by relatives of the so-called 'Genoa Four' to the British consulate in Milan to visit the injured protesters, no adequate effort was made to check on their safety. They were only met by diplomatic staff after they were released from prison and accompanied to the airport.
Despite being deported, the four Britons paid over £200 each for passage back to the UK. Since their return to Britain neither the police nor Foreign Office officials have attempted to take statements from the victims.
The Observer has learnt that the first time consular officials met protesters Richard Moth and Nicola Doherty was when they had already been released without charge, four days after they were severely beaten in the infamous police raid on the school where protesters in Genoa slept.
Doherty's American cellmate received a consular visit just over 24 hours after her arrest.
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