The raid on the "Armando Diaz" School took place during the 27th G8 meeting in Genoa in 2001 in the district of Albaro, Genoa. The school building was the temporary headquarters of the Genoa Social Forum, led by Vittorio Agnoletto. A nearby building, housing the anti-globalization organization Indymedia and lawyers affiliated with the Genoa Social Forum, was also raided. On July 21, 2001, shortly before midnight, mobile divisions of the Polizia di Stato of Genoa, Rome and Milan attacked the buildings, with the operational support of some battalions of the Carabinieri.

The police indiscriminately attacked the building's occupants, resulting in the arrest of 93 protesters; 61 were seriously injured and were taken to hospital, three of them were in a critical condition and one in a coma. Prisoners taken to a temporary detention facility in Bolzaneto were tortured and humiliated before being released. The raid resulted in the trial of 125 policemen, including managers and supervisors, for what was termed a beating from "Mexican butchery" by the assistant chief Michelangelo Fournier.^[1][2] None of the accused police officers were punished due to delays in the investigation and incompleteness of Italian laws under which torture was not recognised as a crime in 2001.

Prior to the raid, there had been several clashes between demonstrators and security forces. Several protesters were sleeping in the school. The numbers and designation of the security forces involved in the raid are still unknown, as they wore ski masks to hide their identities. The Court of Appeal of Genoa stated that "346 policemen, in addition to 149 Carabinieri officers were involved in the raid of the school buildings."^[3]

The raid is the subject of the 2012 film Diaz – Don't Clean Up This Blood where the attack and subsequent torture of detainees is recreated. On April 7, 2015, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Italy had violated the European Convention on Human Rights at the 2001 G8 and ordered compensation for a protester beaten by the police.^[4] Earlier, the Italian government compensated a British journalist who had been beaten by the police.^[5] Amnesty International defined the raid as "the most serious human rights suspension in Europe", after World War II.^[6][7]

The police raid on the school, which housed protesters linked to the Genoa Social Forum, took place a few minutes before midnight when most guests were already asleep. The raid was initiated by mobile police units from Rome, followed by more units from Genoa and Milan. Battalions of the Carabinieri did not actively participate in the raid, but limited themselves to surround the perimeter and areas adjacent to the school. Mark Covell, a British journalist, was the first person who met the police outside the building and was assaulted, leaving him in a coma.^[8] During the raid the police violently attacked those who were in the school, injuring 82 people out of a total of 93 arrested. Among the arrested, 63 were taken to hospital and 19 were taken to the police station of Bolzaneto. According to the reconstruction of events given in subsequent investigations, evidence was planted after the raid to justify the brutality of the raid. Senior police officers planted two Molotov cocktails recovered elsewhere in the school, delivered to them by General Valerio Donnini that afternoon.^[9] Police also planted construction tools, hammers and knives from a nearby construction site and claimed they belonged to anarchist groups housed in the building. A police officer, Massimo Nucera, showed a slash in his bulletproof vest, claiming he was knifed by a violent demonstrator. However, the knife was never identified. He was later convicted of forgery and defamation, and it was later revealed that he cut his own vest to claim resistors were violent, and thus justify the brutality of the raid.^[10]

The British journalist Covell was photographed with his wounds immediately after the raid by Daily Mail journalist Lucie Morris, who bribed Italian police to approach him.^[19] Soon afterward, the Daily Mail wrote a story accusing Covell of helping mastermind the riots. Covell contended the story was false, but was in no financial position to sue for libel. However, he was able to get legal aid to sue for invasion of privacy. Covell argued that under the Convention on Human Rights and the Italian constitution, he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his hospital room, and Morris breached it by entering his room under false pretense. The Mail initially stood by its reporting. However, when it became apparent that the paper stood no chance in court, it agreed to pay damages to Covell and reimburse him for his legal expenses. Managing editor Charles Garside also wrote a private letter of apology to Covell.^[20]

While his citizens were being beaten and tormented in illegal detention, spokesmen for the then prime minister, Tony Blair, declared: "The Italian police had a difficult job to do. The prime minister believes that they did that job." Blair's refusal to criticise police violence was condemned by British protesters on their expulsion from Italy.^[21]

While the bloody bodies were being carried out of the Diaz Pertini building on stretchers, police told reporters that the ambulances lined up in the street were nothing to do with the raid. They also claimed that the school building was being used as a makeshift hospital by anarchists who had attacked policemen, and many of the injured in the building had pre-existing injuries.

The next day, senior officers held a press conference at which they announced that everybody in the building would be charged with aggressive resistance to arrest and conspiracy to cause destruction. Later, Italian courts dismissed all charges against everyone.

At the same press conference, police displayed an array of what they described as weaponry. This included crowbars, hammers and nails which they themselves had taken from a builder's store next to the school; aluminium rucksack frames, which they presented as offensive weapons; 17 cameras; 13 pairs of swimming goggles; 10 pen-knives; and a bottle of sun-tan lotion. They also displayed two Molotov cocktails which had been found by police earlier in the day in another part of the city and planted in the Diaz Pertini building as the raid ended.

At the Edinburgh International Television Festival 2001, alternative news journalist Paul O'Connor from Undercurrents news called the mainstream reporting of Genoa "lazy journalism". CNN president Chris Cramer replied that the independent journalism coming out of the protests was "an antidote to that laziness".

On the night of the raid, a force of 59 police entered the building opposite the Diaz Pertini, where Covell and others had been running their Indymedia centre and where, crucially, a group of lawyers had been based, gathering evidence about police attacks on the earlier demonstrations. Officers went into the lawyers' room, threatened the occupants, smashed their computers and seized hard drives. They also removed anything containing photographs or video tape.

Fifteen Italian police officers and doctors were sentenced to jail for brutally mistreating detainees at the Bolzaneto holding camp. However, none of them actually served prison terms because the convictions and sentences were wiped out by a statute of limitations.^[15] Those found guilty, including the camp commander, Biagio Gugliotta, were given jail sentences ranging from five months to five years. However, none served any portion of their sentence. While the verdict did not lead to the punishment of the offenders, it did help victims claim compensation. Since torture is not present in Italy’s code, officers alleged to have tortured demonstrators have never been charged with torture.^[22]

On September 21, 2012, the Italian interior ministry awarded Mark Cowell €350,000 (£280,000 or US$454,265) in an out-of-court settlement. Cowell had suffered broken ribs, smashed teeth and a shredded lung in the attack, and had spent the better part of a decade traveling between the UK and Italy to pursue his case. In return, he dropped his Court of Human Rights case against the Italian government.^[5]

On April 7, 2015, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Italy for the violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights in the Cestaro v. Italy trial and found the Italian legislation against torture to be inadequate.^[23]

The European Court of Human Rights on 22 June 2017 ruled that the Italian police involved in the raid and subsequent detention were guilty of torture, denouncing what it called a "particularly serious and cruel" police raid. The state of Italy was ordered to pay damages to the victims in the order of €45,000–55,000 EUR each.^[24]

• Diaz – Don't Clean Up This Blood