Italy's paramilitary Carabinieri police said Wednesday they never had any information on abuses of Iraqi prisoners - a response to claims by the widow of a policemen killed in Iraq that her husband had seen and reported on brutalized prisoners.
According to Pina Bruno, her husband Massimiliano Bruno had seen "prisoners naked and tortured" and had told her that "they were treated worse than cockroaches."
"I am convinced that my husband's superiors knew everything. There have been reports," she said during a state TV interview Tuesday night.
The Carabinieri said they "never had knowledge of torture of prisoners by members of the coalition forces."
"The hierarchical superiors of Marshall Bruno say they never received from (him) any information regarding the mistreatment of prisoners by coalition forces," said a statement released by the Carabinieri headquarters in Rome.
Bruno was among 19 Italians killed in a Nov. 12 truck bombing of the Carabinieri barracks in Nasiriyah, a city in southern Iraq where the 3,000 Italian troops have been based.
Mrs. Bruno said her husband referred to a "prison, a squalid, very ugly place. They kept them naked."' It wasn't clear, however, if her husband was referring to the Abu Ghraib prison where the abuses took place or to some other detention center near Nasiriyah. The Italian government has repeatedly denied having any information over prisoner abuses before the scandal involving American forces became public. Premier Silvio Berlusconi said the government had been "completely in the dark" and called for "exemplary punishment" for soldiers who abused Iraqi prisoners. The remarks were made earlier this week, amid mounting speculation by opposition members that the government might have been informed and increased pressure to withdraw the Italian contingent.
{{/usCountry}}Mrs. Bruno said her husband referred to a "prison, a squalid, very ugly place. They kept them naked."' It wasn't clear, however, if her husband was referring to the Abu Ghraib prison where the abuses took place or to some other detention center near Nasiriyah. The Italian government has repeatedly denied having any information over prisoner abuses before the scandal involving American forces became public. Premier Silvio Berlusconi said the government had been "completely in the dark" and called for "exemplary punishment" for soldiers who abused Iraqi prisoners. The remarks were made earlier this week, amid mounting speculation by opposition members that the government might have been informed and increased pressure to withdraw the Italian contingent.
{{/usCountry}}The premier, a staunch US ally, has ruled out any change in the Italian mission.