GIULIANI AND GAGGIO v. ITALY JUDGMENT
77
advanced technologies as well as more traditional methods. Hence, the
prosecuting authorities and the investigators had carried out further
questioning of persons who had already given evidence once, where this
was deemed necessary, and had also taken evidence from local residents
who had witnessed the events. A reconstruction of the events and test
shootings had been carried out at the scene. A large body of audiovisual
material, from the law-enforcement agencies and private sources, had been
included in the case file. Three sets of ballistics tests had been ordered by
the public prosecutor's office and the investigating judge had relied on
material from sources close to the demonstrators themselves (an account
published on an anarchist website).
294. The investigation had been opened as a matter of course and the
applicants had had the opportunity to participate in it fully from the outset
by being represented by lawyers and appointing experts of their own
choosing. In particular, the applicants' experts had participated in the third
set of ballistics tests and in the reconstruction of the events (see
paragraph 57 above).
295. The applicants had also been able to make criticisms and requests
when objecting to discontinuation of the case, and the investigating judge
had provided them with sufficiently detailed reasons for refusing their
requests for further investigation (see paragraph 104 above). While it was
true that the applicants had not been able to request the immediate
production of evidence in relation to the first steps in the investigation,
checks of that kind were a matter exclusively for the police. When it came
to the third set of ballistics tests, the public prosecutor had asked the parties
whether they had any objections to the use of the procedure under
Article 360 of the CCP, and there had been no objections. While the
Government conceded that the first and second sets of ballistics tests had
been carried out unilaterally (see paragraphs 54 and 55 above), they
submitted that these had been no more than routine checks, aimed solely at
establishing whether or not the two spent cartridges that had been found
matched M.P.'s weapon. Moreover, M.P. had already admitted firing two
shots and the weapon had in any case been examined again during the third
set of ballistics tests.
296. Within moments of the tragedy the Genoa police (squadra mobile
della questura di Genova) had intervened and taken the investigation in
hand. The carabinieri had been involved only in tasks of lesser importance
and mainly when it came to seizing objects in their possession – for
example, the vehicle and the weapon – or summoning members of the
carabinieri to appear. In addition, the prosecuting authorities had kept the
number of tasks delegated to a minimum, preferring to conduct the most
important interviews themselves and also those liable to be influenced by
the fact that the interviewer was a law-enforcement officer. Given the level
of autonomy and independence of the judiciary in Italy and the fact that the
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