Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Court to Rule on Genoa Arrests

Aired August 13, 2001 - 11:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(VIDEO GAP)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: ... involved in the protest in Genoa last month. This hearing is to determine whether if they are to remain in jail or to go free. There's no decision yet, it could actually go into tomorrow.

The evidence is, lawyers say -- defense lawyers say the evidence is very, very thin, that there were a couple of knives found in their bus, some black inner tubes, supposedly linked to the Black Bloc, and a black bra, if you can believe that, and that is supposedly used as evidence. Lawyers saying that -- the very, very thin evidence, and the real violent Black Bloc people are not among those -- Daryn.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A black bra kind of sounds more like an American scandal, you might say, Chris.

I would imagine that there would be some kind of international outcry about -- from different countries with their citizens that are being held.

BURNS: Absolutely, there is.

They're protests -- this is an Austrian theater group, most of them, a theater group that is very activist, very leftist, and Susanna Thomas was going was going along with them, sort of doing a -- planning to do a senior thesis on their activities. The -- it's a lot of pressure on the Austrian government, all the way up to the president there, and the German government, because there are also Germans who -- were arrested, and also the New Jersey senators, Robert Torricelli and Jon Corzine; they're pressuring very hard that a least Susanna Thomas and the other Americans involved be freed, saying that they really had nothing to do with the violence there.

KAGAN: But any time frame that you're hearing from the Italian government?

BURNS: Well, difficult to say. The -- there is a deadline tomorrow at midnight here that says that if they're not -- if this part of the procedure, the judicial procedure, is not completed, they could be freed, the government would be required to free them. But it does look like the process is going along and they will make some kind of a decision. There are some insiders who have suggested that maybe they'll let Suzanne go and perhaps keep the rest of the Austrian group, at least for a period of time, Daryn.

KAGAN: What kind of conditions are these people being held in?

BURNS: Well, they're being held in various prisons. Of course, Susanna's being held in a woman's prison, somewhere between here and Genoa and Milan, so -- no complaints so far about the treatment there, just, you know, very, very concerned that -- you can imagine a 21- year-old being stuck in the prison. And also worried that if she is convicted, if she were convicted in these -- of these charges of the criminal association with the Black Bloc, she could face 15 years in prison, Daryn.

KAGAN: Very serious stuff, indeed.

Chris Burns, reporting to us from Italy, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com