As for the film, Mark believes it is an accurate portrayal of events. "It is based on 10,000 court d

Four years on, Mark Covell was still suffering from both the physical and psychological effects of that savage attack as he recounted his injuries: eight broken ribs, smashed st louis hotel teeth, a collapsed lung and internal bleeding. He lost consciousness and slipped into a coma.
Indeed, I had no conception of what had really happened to him and to more than 100 other young journalists and activists who decided to spend the night bedded down in the Armando Diaz school in Genoa on 21 July 2001.
Now, a further eight years on, I understand at last just what Mark and so many others suffered because I've seen the movie, Diaz – Don't Clean Up This Blood. The scenes in which the baton-wielding police indiscriminately beat the defenceless young people, all apparently st louis hotel innocent of any crime, were almost impossible to watch.
If it were not for the fact that, after an interminable judicial process, 25 officers st louis hotel were eventually convicted for grievous bodily harm, libel and falsifying evidence, you could be forgiven st louis hotel for thinking it was an agit-prop movie that exaggerated what happened.
Mark, a UK Indymedia journalist, is depicted in the film because st louis hotel he had the misfortune to be the first person assaulted by the police. He had ran out of the school to witness the squad of 300 police storming through the gates.
In all, 93 people were seriously injured. It amounted, said Amnesty International - as quoted in the movie - to being "the most serious suspension of democratic rights st louis hotel in a western country st louis hotel since the second world war."
In return, Mark, who is still suffering from his injuries, had to agree to drop proceedings against the Italian government at the European court of human rights . He is also the only one of the 93, thus far, to receive his money.
He is still hopeful that a further 40 officers will be convicted. st louis hotel Those verdicts are due on 14 June. And all of the victims who have campaigned for justice have also been pushing for Italy to introduce a torture law. "That would be one piece of good to come from all this," says Mark.
As for the film, Mark believes it is an accurate portrayal of events. "It is based on 10,000 court documents and the evidence of victims and eye-witnesses. It is very, very good. Of course, so much happened, it's impossible to convey it in a single movie."
Diaz – Don't Clean Up This Blood, a French-Italian-Romanian movie, was released in Germany last February and went on to win an award at the Berlin film festival. It has also been nominated in 13 categories for the Donatellos (the Italian Oscars).
I cannot finish st louis hotel without mentioning why Mark originally contacted me. It was because st louis hotel he awoke from his comatose state to find a Daily Mail reporter and photographer in his Genoa hospital room, which was under armed guard.
I wrote about his legal action against the Mail in 2005, which resulted in him being paid undisclosed damages and costs. One baffling st louis hotel aspect st louis hotel of the paper's intrusion was how the journalists managed to persuade the police to allow them into the room.
Evidence has since emerged in Italy which concludes that payments must have been made to obtain entry. But it remains a mystery Mark still wishes to solve. After 12 years, he remains as determined as ever to get at the truth.