Five suspects including three teachers arrested last month in a child sex abuse probe were released on Thursday in a highly divisive case which has dominated the Italian headlines.
Six people - three teachers, a female school caretaker, a TV cameraman and a Sri Lankan immigrant - were arrested on April 24, accused of abusing children aged three and four at the Olga Rovere nursery school in the town of Rignano Flaminio.
Two of the teachers, both grandmothers, have been in service at the school for decades and one is close to retirement.
Investigators said the suspects had forced at least 16 children to take part in sexual acts and filmed them, sometimes drugging them beforehand.
The school, considered one of the best nursery schools in the region of Lazio surrounding Rome, subsequently came under criticism for failing to take immediate action when the allegations first surfaced last July.
The case has divided the people of Rignano Flaminio with many, including parents with children at the school, refusing to believe the allegations.
Tensions flared up in the town on Thursday when a Rome court ruled in favour of the defence and ordered the immediate release of five of the six suspects.
The only one to remain in jail was the caretaker, whose case will be heard by the same court later this month.
While the families and friends of the detainees rejoiced, the parents of the allegedly abused children expressed outrage.
"We want an explanation. Above all, we want to know the reasons why the court made this decision," said a lawyer for one of the parents.
A psychiatrist who has assessed the children told reporters that "the accusations are based on serious facts".
Justice Minister Clemente Mastella asked for copies of the court release order.
The investigation began last July, when the parents of six children reported their suspicions of sexual abuse to the police.
The parents were alarmed by signs of bruising and red swelling around the genital areas of their children, as well as by the dazed and confused state in which they sometimes returned home from school.
The school was raided by police in October and parents began to pressure the school's new headmistress Loredana Cascelli to act on the increasing complaints.
In December, Education Minister Giuseppe Fioroni authorised the suspension of the teachers as a cautionary measure but delegated the application to local education officials because he had not been given the names of the suspects.
The teachers were finally suspended in late February, some two weeks after their colleagues signed a petition in their defence calling for "an end to this despicable harassment".
At least 80 of the school's 255 pupils have undergone medical and psychological tests since October.
