Prison Struggle – Page 11

Belarus: Igor Olinevich turned 40 years old!

Posted on 2024/01/09 by darknights

Missed from 24th September 2023:

Today, September 24, is the 40th anniversary of our dear comrade, revolutionary and political prisoner Igor Olinevich. 40 years is the age of deep maturity. A maturity that Igor was not lacking in his 20s and that was strengthened during his struggle both on the outside and in prison.

As a 27-year-old anarchist activist in 2010, he was imprisoned for his beliefs and spent 5 years in prison. Prison is not a place for development, it is a place of personal destruction. But for revolutionaries who are firm in their convictions, there are no obstacles that cannot be overcome in the pursuit of freedom, if not universal, at least personal freedom. That is why Igor and his comrades from the Black Banner group illegally returned to Belarus in 2020 and took part in the uprising with exceptional courage and selflessness. The group was captured in the border forest while trying to escape. Igor and three other comrades received up to 20 years of strict regime. At the same time, the comrades bravely admitted their participation in the rebellion, denying guilt despite the consequences.

Paradoxically, it is those people who dream of freedom more than others who are often condemned to a life of absolute captivity because they did not agree to live in semi-freedom. For anarchist-revolutionaries, half-measures are unacceptable. It is thanks to such dedicated people that we are content with more and more freedoms that we take for granted. It is worth remembering that we owe all the freedoms we have to the brave who spent their lives behind bars or laid them on the altar of revolution. Continue reading “Belarus: Igor Olinevich turned 40 years old!” →

$hile: “Words from the confinement, necessary letters” by Marcelo Villarroel

Posted on 2024/01/06 by darknights

On December 16, 2009 I was expelled from Argentina after 21 months of confinement in different units of the province of Neuquén to be at the disposal of the Chilean state and it has been 14 years since then.

In 2014 I was sentenced to 14 years for two bank robberies. Strictly speaking, I am serving this sentence in its entirety, from beginning to end, without any benefit and it ends today December 16, 2023 and still the state keeps me behind bars.

According to the gendarmes, I must serve 12 more years of imprisonment to be able to apply for some intrapenitentiary benefit only in 2036. According to their retroactive modifications of the illegal Chilean law, in 2056 I will definitively expire my sentences, all of them from events that occurred more than 30 years ago.

A madness of numbers and years typical of Pinochet’s military justice shamefully in force and still today endorsed by recent rulings of the Court of Appeals of Rancagua, of Santiago, of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court of this amnesiac country governed today by the Communist Party, the Broad Front and all the progressive and social-democratic scum always at the service of the interests of the great god of capital.

In this context, a few days ago, Mónica and Francisco, anarchist comrades of action who received the full revenge of the state, were condemned by the capital’s democratic inquisition, particularly Francisco to whom the domination imposed 86 years, becoming today the revolutionary prisoner in the Chilean prisons with the highest sentence and whom we must know how to accompany from the daily practice without pauses since the road will evidently be longer. Always from the complicit affinity and never from the victimization!

On the other hand, in the occupied wallmapu, in the same week, the racist Chilean justice declares Peñi Luis Tranamil Nahuel, who these days is about to receive a hefty sentence, as well as Peñi Nelson Queupil, who faces an imminent sentence, both walking the path of the weichan, are in Chilean prisons, fists raised, living the onslaught of the state offensive of occupation. Continue reading “$hile: “Words from the confinement, necessary letters” by Marcelo Villarroel” →

Italy: Cassation for Juan Sorroche set for Jan. 26 for the attack on Villorba’s Lega headquarters

Posted on 2024/01/04 - 2024/01/04 by darknights

On Friday, January 26, at 10 a.m. in Rome, the Cassation hearing against our comrade Juan for the attack on the Lega headquarters in Villorba (TV) will be held [see: https://ilrovescio.info/2021/12/15/manifesto-per-juan-e-aggiornamenti-sul-processo/ ].

Having already withdrawn the charge of massacre during the hearing, the prosecution is asking the Supreme Court to again recognize the endangering of people’s lives as had happened in the first instance. On appeal, the attack had been considered potentially dangerous to “safety” but not to people’s lives, which led to a significant reduction in the sentence (from 28 years to 14 years and 10 months in prison: https://ilrovescio.info/2023/03/31/venezia-sentenza-dappello-per-juan/).

Solidarity with Juan and all imprisoned comrades! Everyone free, everyone free!

Source: Il Rovescio

USA: Anarchist Prisoner Eric King Released to Halfway House After Ten Years

Posted on 2023/12/17 by darknights

Source: It’s Going Down

Following nearly ten years of incarceration and numerous attempts by the State to frame, murder, and break him – anarchist prisoner Eric King has now been released and is headed to a half-way house “for several weeks,” reports supporters.

Imprisoned for taking direct action in solidarity with the Ferguson uprising, Eric King survived everything from COVID, to attacks by neo-Nazi prisoners, and years of abuse from guards. In a statement from 2016, King stated:

I stand by my actions. After seeing what happened in Ferguson, so close down the road, I was disgusted by the lack of mobilization in my city. Three hours away people were fighting for their lives and we weren’t even taking to the streets. We were doing nothing. My act as a very personal display of my anger and rage toward the state as well as an act of solidarity to everyone in Ferguson. We never know our own strength until we are tested and even with my ridiculous sentence I feel at least proud to have been able to stand strong and refuse to cooperate with the state.

In 2022, Eric King was victorious in court against a frame-up attempt by guards, after they attacked him in a supply closet and attempted to slap him with an additional 20 years in prison.

Currently there is a fundraiser set-up for Eric to help him with his post release. Eric is also one of the co-editors of the new book, Rattling the Cages: Oral Histories of North American Political Prisoners, published by AK Press, sales of which benefits the Anarchist Black Cross warchest program and Eric King’s family.

Eric’s bravery and courage in the face of years of torture and abuse is a testament of our collective ability to resist and weather the horrors of state repression. For future updates, be sure to check out the Support Eric King page, here.

Chile: Sentences for Anarchist Comrades Monica Caballero and Francisco Solar

Posted on 2023/12/10 by darknights

Sentences for Comrades Monica Caballero and Francisco Solar

December 8, 2023

Today, December 7, 2023, the 6th Oral Criminal Court of Santiago decided to impose long sentences on the freedom of the comrades, attempting to strike and bury in concrete anarchist ideas and practices with this nauseating sentence. In detail the sentences are as follows:

For Monica Cabellero 12 years in prison, convicted of being an accomplice in the double explosive attack against the Tánica building (https://es-contrainfo.espiv.net/2019/07/29/santiago-chile-adjudicacion-de-atentados-con-paquetes-bomba-contra-rodrigo-hinzpeter-y-el-mayor-de-carabineros-manuel-guzman/) in February 2020.

Meanwhile for Francisco Solar, a total of 86 years in prison. Two counts of sending explosive artifacts (54th Precinct and Hinzpeter) (https://web.archive.org/web/20191014185550/https://actforfree.nostate.net/?p=34434): 12 years + 12 years. One count of attempted homicide of a carabinero: 15 years. One count of serious injury to a carabinero: 6 years. One count of less serious injury: 600 days. Five counts of minor injuries: 100 days (each). 500 days. One count of aggrivated damages (Commussioner): 818 days. One count of attempted homicide of Hinzpeter: 12 years. Two counts of placing an explosive device (Tánica): 12 years + 12 years. (https://es-contrainfo.espiv.net/2020/02/28/comuna-vitacura-chile-colocacion-de-dos-artefactos-explosivos/)

During the next days, the defense will make known if they plan to appeal the convictions, otherwise, there will be no modification on the sentences imposed by the judges.

The disproportionate determinations of the democratic inquisition are an example of the permanent bother that anarchic actions generate for power and its defenders, it is nothing more than the statist need to warn those who seek to travel along confrontational paths, however, we know that no condemnation will stop the expansion of anarchic ideas against the world of authority.

Complicit and combative solidarity will annihilate the walls that hold our relatives hostage!

Death to the State and Long Live Anarchy!

Source: Informativo Anarquista

Via & Translated by Act for freedom now!

Greece: Thanos Chatziangelou ‘The Palestinian Resistance as a reference point for the declaration of the anti-imperialist civil war’

Posted on 2023/11/28 - 2023/11/28 by darknights

Message of the imprisoned member of the Anarchist Action Organisation, Thanos Chatziangelou, on the strategic diversion of the Palestinian Resistance in the heart of the imperialist centres.

Car bomb attack of Red Army Faction at the HQ USAFE and HQ 4th ATAF parking lot of Ramstein Air Base in 1981

The Palestinian Resistance as a reference point for the declaration of the anti-imperialist civil war in the Western metropolises

“A sacrifice today for tomorrow

the numbers suck their blood

Good morning, you’ll say good morning to me again on Saturday.

wrapped in a shroud.”

The Zionist atrocity of the Israeli occupation forces and the Western allies is growing day by day. Invoking the provocative narrative of the rules of war, they baptize entire migrant camps, hospitals, churches, playgrounds and entire urban centres as Hamas bases and operational centres in order to legitimize the exemplary massacre of the Palestinian resistance for communication purposes. Israel’s war crimes are officially underwritten by the North Atlantic Alliance, with bilateral military support and the legitimisation of Israeli interventions by Western media propaganda. The Western narrative cuts off the practical popular resistance of dozens of Palestinian organizations from the Palestinian right to self-determination and independence, wanting to criminalize and drown in blood any attempt at liberation defined by the popular base, moving outside and against the imperialist Western centers.

Combatant comrades,

Since the dawn of Saturday 7 October and the realisation of Operation “Al Aqsa Storm” on the Israeli military bases outside the Gaza Strip, we have witnessed a historic breakthrough. Decades of armed popular resistance by Palestinian fighters is verging on an impending victory for the twin goals of liberation and self-determination. A victory of the armed struggle against Zionism and imperialism. It is our responsibility, our duty, but above all our political choice whether to be spectators of these events or to make a decisive contribution as a real and existing part of the internationalist front in defence of the liberation struggle everywhere.

This juncture can and must become the contemporary reference point for the combative construction of the international anti-imperialist front, constituted by revolutionary initiatives that will speak with action – will speak the language of fire. It is today that the strategic experience of the internationalist comrades and the experiences of those who wrote history in blood and gunpowder must become a common ground and source of inspiration for the necessary revolutionary initiatives. Continue reading “Greece: Thanos Chatziangelou ‘The Palestinian Resistance as a reference point for the declaration of the anti-imperialist civil war’” →

Brighton, UK: Call For An International Anti-Repression Gathering. March 29th-31st, 2024

Posted on 2023/11/26 by darknights

In the face of escalated attacks against workers, young people, migrants and the living conditions of prisoners, we call for an encounter to learn how we can combine our struggle and understand how to advance our fight for a world without police, prisons and borders.

In the UK as elsewhere, murderous police kill with impunity whilst politicians make way for a vast prison building program that will affect the poorest and most marginalised parts of society. Anarchists, activists and environmentalists are targetted as “extremists” and “terrorists” with special police teams designed to infiltrate and dismantle their campaigns and organisations.

Our communities are increasingly turned into open prisons, “a prison society”, through new technologies of social control. It’s time to stop wringing our hands and instead get organised. What do we have in common and can we build a common platform of action and discussion that helps us build a better world.

The event will take place over a weekend of Friday March 29th to Sunday 31st, 2024. If you wish to participate contact ABC Brighton at brightonabc@riseup.net

—

Subjects to be covered include:
Operation Adream
Kill The Bill (Bristol) cases
Police Brutality
Deaths in Custody
Migration Detention
Work of IWOC
Participating Group Presentations
Text / Recordings from Prisoners
We also hope to have a set-up to allow virtual contributions too.

Athens, Greece: Text by Anarchist Pola Roupa: November 17, 2023. 50 years from the Polytechnic and my release from prison

Posted on 2023/11/22 by darknights

Pola Roupa: November 17, 2023. 50 years from the Polytechnic and my release from prison

“After 7 years of consecutive imprisonment (from the arrest of 5th January, 2017), 8.5 years together with pre-trial detention (arrested on 10/4/2010) and 13 years and 6 months in total, sentence I served for my participation in Revolutionary Struggle, I have been released. The symbolism of the day was strong as this year’s November 17th marks the 50th anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising of 1973. On that day, everyone remembers the dead of the Polytechnic but also all those who have fallen in the struggle for freedom.

For me, this day was dominated by the memory of our comrade killed in the activity of Revolutionary Struggle, Lambros Fountas. But in my thoughts is also the comrade Nikos Maziotis who, despite the fact that he has served 11 years’ “closed” prison and 14 years in a mixed prison – a very long period for a 20-year sentence -, the judicial councils of Lamia are refusing to release him. It is now clear that a unique status of exception has been imposed on Nikos Maziotis, as no prisoner in a similar situation (with charges based on 187A) and with a similar sentence (i.e. not a life sentence) has remained in prison for such a long period of time. This exceptional regime based on political criteria and motives and which in practice nullifies the institution of parole – which according to the law is mandatory and not “gratuitous”, given that it is not left to the personal will of the respective judge – this exemption regime must come to an end. In addition to the flagrant violation of his rights, this special regime of exception is reminiscent of a junta-style treatment of a political prisoner.

After spending many years in prison, it would be a lie to say that I am not thinking about the many dozens of female prisoners I have lived together with. On the occasion of the – by mistake I believe – publication that they “discovered” that I was released from prison because I am the mother of an underage child, I have to say that in addition to the fact that I have already served the years of detention required for parole, there is no provision by any penal code for discharge of a prisoner on parole because she is the mother of a minor child. Only article 105 of the Criminal Code of 2019 provides for house arrest for mothers with children under the age of 8, a measure that is not particularly applied.

Having lived with women for many years, I know that most of them have a central role in caring for people such as young children, the elderly, the sick, the disabled, and their prolonged detention has a terrible impact on the lives of those who have remained alone, without their help. Conditional release for mothers of minors and for women who take care of categories of people such as those I mentioned above, is a provision whose absence from the criminal code demonstrates that the legislators do not take into account the pivotal position of women-carers in social life. It is a lack that often costs human lives.”

19/11/2023

Source: epanastaticosagonas

Via & Translated by Act for freedom now!

Santiago, Chile: End of trial and final declarations of Francisco Solar and Mónica Caballero (6-7 November 2023)

Posted on 2023/11/22 by darknights

End of trial and final declarations of Francisco Solar and Mónica Caballero (Santiago, Chile, 6-7 November 2023)

(IT) Conclusione del processo e dichiarazioni finali di Francisco Solar e Mónica Caballero (Santiago, Cile, 6-7 novembre 2023)

(FR) Fin du procès et déclarations de Francisco Solar et Mónica Caballero (Santiago, Chili, 6-7 novembre 2023)

(EN) End of trial and final declarations of Francisco Solar and Mónica Caballero (Santiago, Chile, 6-7 November 2023)

The final hearings of the first instance trial against anarchist comrades Mónica Caballero and Francisco Solar, arrested on July 24th 2020 and accused (only Francisco) of sending parcel-bombs to the 54th police station and to Rodrigo Hinzpeter, ex minister of the interior and national defence as well as a director of the Quiñenco (25th July 2019), and both of the double explosive attack in the real estate building Tánica (27th February 2020), in the bourgeois district of Vitacura (in the metropolitan area of Santiago) which took place in the context of the generalised revolt that broke out in Chile in October 2019. The actions against the 54th police station and Hinzpeter were claimed by Cómplices Sediciosos – Fracción por la Venganza, while that of the Tánica by the Afinidades Armadas en Revuelta.

In December 2021 Francisco claimed responsibility for both of the actions, giving the reasons, choice of objectives and revolutionary significance.

On 10th August 2022, after a series of extensions to the investigation period, the preliminary hearings have been concluded and requests for conviction been announced: 30 years’ prison for Mónica and 129 years for Francisco (according to the current judicial system in the Chilean State the public prosecutor’s office makes the requests before the start of the actual trial phase, the juicio oral). On 18th July of this year, after a postponement the trial finally began, which the comrades only attended in person during the first procedure of according to the current judicial system and the last hearing, attending the rest by video-conference. During the July 18th hearing, the prosecutor, reformulating the initial requests, stated that the prosecutor’s office intends to inflict a sentence of 20 to 25 years on Mónica and one of over 150 on Francisco. During the hearing of 19th July Francisco reaffirmed assumption of responsibility for all the actions. Continue reading “Santiago, Chile: End of trial and final declarations of Francisco Solar and Mónica Caballero (6-7 November 2023)” →

UK: HMP Garth Illegally Restricting Toby Shone’s Mail

Posted on 2023/11/21 - 2023/12/03 by darknights

Toby Shone, currently incarcerated in Category B prison HMP Garth, is receiving no mail – including his legal mail from his lawyers – and any money being sent into him to be added to his prison account is being restricted to only those persons on his approved contact list. If you are intending to send him a letter, it is suggested that you send you message via https://www.emailaprisoner.com/, which he is currently able to receive. If you want to send him money and are not on his approved contact list, Toby suggests you send it to his support group (bank account details below).

If you have sent him mail, books, etc. at HMP Garth and have not received a reply, Toby asks that you contact Brighton ABC [brightonabc@riseup.net] so that you can be added to the complaint that his lawyers are putting together to challenge the prison’s actions.

The Bottled Wasp
Co-operative Bank
Sort code: 08-92-99
Acc. No.: 65601648
BIC: CPBKGB22
IBAN: GB 35 CPBK 0892996560164