Monthly Archives: September 2019

Greece: Update on the trial of imprisoned anarchist comrade Konstantinos Giagztoglou

via: 325

On Friday, September 20, 2019, in the special courtroom of the Korydallos prison, the trial against anarchist comrade Konstantinos Giagztoglou began.

CASE SUMMARY

Dinos was arrested in October 2017 in an anti-terrorist ambush when he left an apartment in central Athens, which he rented with false ID to help a persecuted comrade. He was arrested with an order issued by Special Investigator Eutychis Nikopoulos for the case of intercepted letter-bomb packages which were sent to officials of the European economic and political elite in the spring of that year. Since then he has been detained and accused of participating in a “terrorist organization”, as well as construction and dispatch of explosive devices to officials of financial institutions and rating agencies throughout Europe, as well as an attempted murder for the package that injured Loukas Papadimos, the former prime minister of Greece. The comrade has declared from the first moment of his arrest and in an open letter to the anarchist movement, that renting the apartment was a conscious choice in the context of revolutionary solidarity, but does not accept any of the other accusations.

At the same time, the German and French police were called to investigate the package received by the Federal Minister of Finance, Wolfgang Schäuble, which was identified by the security staff of the German ministry in Berlin, and for the package received by the IMF representative for Europe, Franks Jeffrey, which exploded at its headquarters in Paris. The recipients of the remaining 8 packages, identified by the ELTA Anti-Terrorist Detection Center in Kryoneri, in the order indicated in the case file, were the following: Continue reading


Sweden: Prisoner on hunger strike to the death

via 325

Long time civilian prisoner Natalia Pshenkina takes on struggle against the Swedish prison authorities with hungerstrike.

Natalia was sentenced for murder in 2005 and got in contact with political comrades in prison in 2011. She then contacted the current prisoner solidarity group Fånggruppen Syd – Prisoners group of southern sweden, for help with legal assistance. Natalias case has since been worked on as a civilan non-political side case on a personal level by individuals within the former group. Since 2018 Natalias case has more and more taken the form of organizing and fighting by juridical means for better conditions in the Swedish prison system. Natalia took this fight at the prison where she was earlier placed, KVA Ystad, in southern most of todays Sweden. The condition at KVA-Ystad has been growing worse for a long time by reasons such as over crowding and ending of all activities for prisoners due to severe lack of funding.

Because of Natalias struggle she was removed to high security prison Hinseberg in summer of 2019. There Natalia again took up the struggle and demanded better conditions for the prisoners. This was answered by utter silence by the authorities responsible for the complaints and demands by prisoners, as is the case in almost hundred percent of these requests.

Natalia was instead sent to a disciplinary facility and on from there to psychiatric prison, which sent her back. Since Monday September 9th Natalia is on total hunger strike,to the death, against the prison authorities at Hinseberg. She was last heard of on Sept 14th and then already after six days suffering from malnutrition and growing weariness. If more contact is possible with Natalia we will ask her to list the demands in her requests to JO which are the base for her hunger strike. As for the moment we don’t have these technical details. Natalias hunger strike is a fight against the prison authorities and an act of great solidarity also for other prisoners. Due to the sufferings she has takes for these desperate struggles, it is now high time to start counting Natalias case as a political struggle and support her as a prisoner after this measure. We thereby ask you to spread this message to trustworthy activists and group within the left wing groups and communities and to write to and support Natalia by letters or statements. We ask you to acknowledge that the Swedish prison system today stands as the worst example in western Europe after Italy and England. Political prisoners have been severely beaten and isolated for letters to them with political content. For prisoners classed as females, beatings are often precluded by stripping of the clothes with knife in front of male attendants and have been in severe cases been followed by being put naked in isolation cells for many days. Be careful what you write and be ready for the fact that Natalia may not anymore have the health to answer.

Our solidarity is now the only way that Natalia can pursue this struggle.

Members of prisoner solidarity groups in southern Sweden.

Natalia Pshenkina
Hinseberg 120
71892 Frövi
Sweden


Italy: Update on Operation Prometheus

via: 325

and insuscettibile di ravvedimento  [IT/EN/FR]

Italy: “Prometeo” repressive operation – Update on Natascia and a few words on the reasons given to confirm her precautionary custody in prison (September 2019)

“Trials are set up for anarchists for what anarchists are, enemies of the State”.

A little more than one week ago, a public ordinance of the Milan tribunal was published, which outlined the reasons given during the review that confirmed her precautionary custody while she is awaiting trial. This previously happened with Robert and Beppe, who were also arrested on 21 May as part of a repressive operation called “Prometeo”.

A slew of reasons were subdivided into many paragraphs that were titled, “degree of harmfulness of rudimentary ordnances sent”, “the need for precautionary measures”, “evidence of serious indications of guilt” and the “juridical qualification of the offence in the perspective of some constituent elements, including under the profile of the psychological element”.

All indications point to the fact that it is what the accused represent as individuals, more than proof that is incontrovertible or incontestable. In fact the paragraph on the “degree of harmfulness of rudimentary ordnances sent” concludes with “that being said, even if we wanted to believe that the ordnances were not such as to put the lives of the recipients at risk […] the College considers that the crime and the potential […] are unveiled in any case – for the methods of conduct, the personalities of the accused and the context in which they were involved – a significant danger of the material authors, with consequent substantial irrelevance, in terms of a strictly precautionary assessment, of the effective attitude of the ordnances to disrupt the lives of people”. Continue reading


France: Update about Anarchist Vincenzo Vecchi arrested, convicted for the G8 in Genoa in 2001

Anarchist Vincenzo Vecchi was arrested on Thursday, August 8, 2019 in France. The arrest was carried out by the French cops and (as reported by the scum media) was made possible by the contribution of the agents of the “Service for the fight against extremism and internal terrorism” and of the Antiterrorism section of the DIGOS of Milan, which through “a close investigative connection” with the French police were able to identify the comrade. Against him two European arrest warrants had been issued by the prosecutors of Milan and Genoa.

Vincenzo had been “on the run” since 2012, following the final sentence of 11 years and six months that was imposed on charges of “devastation and pillage, robbery and carrying of weapons” following Black Bloc actions against the G8 summit that took place in Genoa, Italy in July 2001.

On Friday, 27 September, the Rennes Court of Appeal refused the application for release of the comrade pending extradition hearing. A new hearing is expected in the next few weeks in the same court to decide whether Vincenzo will be handed over to the Italian authorities.

On 23 August, the court ordered further information to the transalpine justice authorities, before 10 October, to clarify various points concerning convictions in Italy. In 2012, the comrade was sentenced to years in prison for actions during anti-G8 demonstrations in Genoa in 2001. Vincenzo was also sentenced to four years in prison for his participation in an anti-fascist demonstration in Milan. in 2006. About sixty relatives and companions were present before the Court of Appeal of Rennes where his request for release was studied. On 22 August, the investigating chamber ordered a feasibility investigation for possible house arrest with electronic surveillance.

At the hearing, on the 27 September, the lawyer of the Vincenzo, presented new elements: “The two European mandates are false and inaccurate.” “We have added a document that shows that one of the convictions in Italy” (note: the Milan case) has been fully executed.”

The court eventually followed the General Counsel’s submissions and refused the release of Vincenzo Vecchi. He will remain in detention in the center of Rennes-Vezin pending a future hearing.

Write / contact address:

Vincenzo Vecchi
Centre pénitentiaire de Rennes-Vezin
Rue du Petit Pré
35132 Vezin-le-Coquet
France


UK: Bang Up and Smash: Women’s Prisons, Probation and Bail Hostels , by Asbo

Bang-up and Smash is an overview of women’s prisons in the UK, and a political analysis of their physical and ideological construction.
From the moment of arrest, to coming home, Bang-up and Smash uses first hand experiences to critically engage with the procedures, concepts and apparatus the state relies on, and the economics behind the expansion of the prison industrial complex.
Bang-up and Smash  is a practical guide to women’s prisons in the UK, and a rallying call to attack. Solidarity is a weapon, and abolition is not enough…
See Active Distribution for free pdf download or order print version
http://www.activedistributionshop.org/shop/books/4325-bang-up-and-smash-by-asbo.html
Also download pdf from Empty Cages website http://www.prisonabolition.org/bang-smash-womens-prisons-probation-bail-hostels/
For more information email  asbo.hmp@riseup.net
Copy left. Share, discuss, dismiss…. comments welcome. Please circulate.
ASBO

Bulgaria: Antifascist Comrade Jock Palfreeman Paroled, Transferred to Immigration Detention

 

via: Anarchists Worldwide

20.09.19: According to the latest reports from Bulgarian media, antifascist comrade Jock Palfreeman, who was granted parole yesterday, has been released from Sofia Prison but transferred immediately to the Sofia Busmantsi Immigration Detention Centre. According to the media this is because Comrade Jock does not have a valid passport or identity documents. He will remain at the detention centre until he receives a new passport. It is not clear whether he will then remain in Bulgaria or leave the country.

Comrade Jock was filmed and photographed being escorted from the prison by plainclothes officers to a waiting car. Comrade Jock yelled out to waiting reporters “Thanks to Desislav Traykov, Deputy Chief of Prison!” before being bustled into the vehicle. Desislav Traykov recently resigned from his post following a scandal involving a 16 year old drug trafficker.

Many sectors of the Bulgarian political elite are outraged at the release of Comrade Jock, however media reports indicate that the decision to grant Jock parole is final.


Chile: Statement by Anarchist comrade Marcelo Villarroel on Political Prison in Chile

via: amwenglish

From the high security jail of Santiago de Chile I send these words of greeting to all who meet today in Villa Francia to share visions and experiences around the political prison.

The jail that I live in today is the same one that has taken more than 20 years of my life.

I arrived here at the age of 21, transferred from the former penitentiary at its inauguration on February 20, 1994, leading me in 2004 with the anti-jail fight started with Kamina Libre in 1996.

The KAS was then used to imprison and annihilate the military political subversion of the left. Rodríguistas, Miristas and Mapucistas lautarinos [members of MAPU-Lautaro, an armed left-wing group] were recipients of the perverse dirty war of the government of Aylwin and Frei that managed to defeat the armed projects embodied in the FPMR, the different MIR and the Mapu-Lautaro.

There were many factors that caused this defeat and the prisoners of that generation began to leave after a decade of confinement, one of the toughest in Chilean carceral history.

The composition of social reality was severely transformed by the State and the Capital in the process of bourgeois remaking, thus transforming paradigms, ideas, practices and tensions.

It was in the second half of the ‘90s that the subversive reality began to change definitely as well as the ideas of forces that serve as references and guides for action. Continue reading


Greece: Contribution to the international meeting against the techno-sciences (Italy – July 2019) by anarchist Dino Giagtzoglou, prisoner of the Greek state.

 

via Resistenze al Nanomondo

IT: Contributo per l’incontro internazionale contro le tecno-scienze (Italia – luglio 2019) dell’anarchico Dino Giagtzoglou, prigioniero dello stato greco

GR: Ντίνος Γιαγτζόγλου: Συνεισφορά Στη Διεθνή Συνάντηση Ενάντια Στις Τεχνο-Επιστήμες

Contribution to the international meeting against the techno-sciences (Italy – July 2019) by anarchist Dino Giagtzoglou, prisoner of the Greek state

Comrades

I start this letter with a certainty. I am sure that our life experiences are very different as well as the starting points of the struggle of each and every one. I also think that with many of you we have different ideological origins and disagreements or contrasts on individual issues. But I firmly believe that the will to resist the plans of Domination, stemming from the awareness of the fundamental social alienation that alienates us from ourselves and nature as a whole, and the revolutionary passion for the destruction of the mega-machine of Power unite us in a common vision of a world free from the shackles of civilization. By going through a variety of analyzes, striding kilometer distances and eliminating in practice the language obstacles, since we recognize that there is the community of struggle for total liberation, we can really keep the flame of the revolt lit and the wager of the social revolution open. I therefore send a warm greeting to the Resistenze Al Nanomondo collective and to all the participants in the international meeting against the techno-sciences, expressing in advance my eagerness to fill the gaps in knowledge, that my absence will undoubtedly cause, by studying your reflections, your conclusions and everything you can get me through the actions and collaborations that will come from your fermentations in Italy.

But let’s take things in turn. For 21 months now, I have been pre-trial detained in the Greek prisons because I made the decision, like many fighters around the world, to realize my ideas by taking a battle position in the social war and fighting against power, here and now. So I am in prison because I put my ideas into practice beyond the limits of the law and certainly not by accident.

With the firm conviction that the revolution will either be lawless or it will be nothing, I wanted to give a concrete example – in the first person and in the present tense – of what revolutionary solidarity could mean, beyond the dipoles of innocence and guilt, of legality and illegality, by providing shelter to a persecuted comrade. That is why I am buried in tons of cement and iron, risking to be condemned for the “terrorist” attacks with booby-trapped letter envelopes on EU officials, executives of economic organizations and credit rating agencies sent in the spring of 2017, with which I have denied my correlation since my arrest, but the odds of my conviction for them remain high. Of course no one was found in prison simply because one decided to fight against oppression and exploitation. My current status is the actual proof that I made mistakes. Mistakes in some decisions I made in relation both to myself and to other individuals with whom I misguidedly felt we have been sharing a common struggle. Mistakes that cost dozens of years of imprisonment, mistakes that may be unforgivable, but certainly neither them nor prison itself can cancel my permanent determination for struggle, struggle, struggle… under any circumstances. So I can only breathe through the endeavors of the comrades who are outside the walls and continue the struggle. I want to support such efforts because through them I am inspiring and essentially exist, I live for them! And so I see these three days too. Continue reading


Chile: Statement by Marcelo Villarroel on Political Prison in Chile

via AMW English

From the high security jail of Santiago de Chile I send these words of greeting to all who meet today in Villa Francia to share visions and experiences around the political prison.

The jail that I live in today is the same one that has taken more than 20 years of my life.

I arrived here at the age of 21, transferred from the former penitentiary at its inauguration on February 20, 1994, leading me in 2004 with the anti-jail fight started with Kamina Libre in 1996.

The KAS was then used to imprison and annihilate the military political subversion of the left. Rodríguistas, Miristas and Mapucistas lautarinos [members of MAPU-Lautaro, an armed left-wing group] were recipients of the perverse dirty war of the government of Aylwin and Frei that managed to defeat the armed projects embodied in the FPMR, the different MIR and the Mapu-Lautaro.

There were many factors that caused this defeat and the prisoners of that generation began to leave after a decade of confinement, one of the toughest in Chilean carceral history.

The composition of social reality was severely transformed by the State and the Capital in the process of bourgeois remaking, thus transforming paradigms, ideas, practices and tensions.

It was in the second half of the ‘90s that the subversive reality began to change definitely as well as the ideas of forces that serve as references and guides for action. Continue reading


Italy: “Prometeo” operation – An update about Giuseppe

via insuscettibile di ravvedimento

In recent weeks, as already written, Beppe was transferred from the AS2 [“High Surveillance 2”] section of the Rossano Calabro prison to the Pavia prison. The interview with the lawyer showed that he is in the protected section, where there are collaborators of justice, former law enforcement officers, sex offenders and trans and homosexual prisoners (who have explicitly requested to be among the protected). Beppe had requested to be transferred from the Rossano AS2, where the vast majority of prisoners are Islamic, due to incompatibility and had also requested an approach to his home, thus indicating the AS2 sections of the north-center of Italy where there are currently anarchist comrades. The provocative response to his request was the transfer to the protected section of the Pavia prison. Let’s not leave him alone!

To send letters and telegrams to Giuseppe:

Giuseppe Bruna
C. C. di Pavia
via Vigentina 85
27100 Pavia
Italia [Italy]