Italy: prison guards accused of torturing a Tunisian

Ten prison guards at a correctional facility in Reggio Emilia, a city in northern Italy, were charged with torturing and beating a detainee of Tunisian origin in April, local justice said on Thursday.

The guards were relieved of their duties after being charged with torture, bodily harm to a detainee, and concealment of the facts, the local prosecutor's office said in a statement.

The investigation, which focused on 14 suspects, was opened after the complaint of a detainee, described as a man of Tunisian origin, relating to events that occurred on April 3.

The detainee had been forced to lie on the ground, his head covered by a pillowcase, and had been "beaten with kicks and punches in the face and body", prosecutor Gaetano Calogero Paci said. quoted by local media.

Placed in solitary confinement, the detainee had broken a sink and used a fragment to lacerate himself, obtaining the arrival of a doctor, according to the media.

CCTV helped identify the suspects, the sources said.