GIULIANI AND GAGGIO v. ITALY JUDGMENT 29 commission referred in that regard to the “double game” being played by the Genoa Social Forum). The parliamentary commission's report concluded as follows: “The commission ... reiterates that violence is not and must not be a tool for political action and that the rule of law is a fundamental value of democratic societies. At the same time it emphasises strongly the inviolability of the constitutional principles of freedom to express one's thoughts and respect for the individual even – not to say especially – where he or she is detained following arrest, and also the need to ensure the safety of citizens and public order; if acts constituting a criminal or disciplinary offence are established, [the commission] would like to see the judicial authority and the administrative bodies concerned identify those responsible and punish their actions.” 117. The Government produced before the Court the verbatim records of the hearings at which the parliamentary commission had heard evidence from the Minister of the Interior, the Director-General of the Public Safety Department and the Commander-General of the Revenue Police. 118. On 20 September 2001 a group of parliamentarians called on the government to explain why law-enforcement officers being deployed on public-order operations were equipped with live ammunition rather than rubber bullets. The parliamentarians advocated the use of the latter, arguing that they had been used successfully on several occasions in other countries. 119. The government spokesman replied that the legislation made no provision for that option and that, moreover, it had not been proven that rubber bullets did not also cause very serious harm to the victim. Finally, he said that the possibility of introducing non-lethal weapons was currently being examined. 120. On 22 June 2006 the applicants applied to the Prime Minister's Office and to the Ministry of Defence for compensation in respect of the damage they had suffered as a result of the death of Carlo Giuliani. The Government explained that the application had been refused on the ground that it had been established in criminal proceedings that M.P. had acted in self-defence. For the same reason, no disciplinary proceedings were instituted against M.P. G. The decisions given in the “trial of the twenty-five” 1. The first-instance judgment 121. On 13 March 2008 the Genoa District Court published its reasoning in the judgment adopted on 14 December 2007 following the trial of twenty-five demonstrators charged with a number of offences committed on 20 July 2001 (including criminal damage, theft, destroying property, looting and acts of violence against law-enforcement officers). During the trial, in which 144 hearings were held, the District Court, among other things, heard