We are happy to know and report that the anarchist comrade Gabriel Pombo da Silva was released from prison a few hours ago.
The struggle continues!
Category: Prison Struggle
Genoa, Italy: First-degree sentence of the Diamante trial
First-degree sentence of the Diamante trial (Genoa, Italy, July 5, 2023)
The first-degree sentence of the Diamante trial against anarchist comrades Evelin and Gianluca (arrested on March 16th, 2022) was read out today, July 5th, at the Genoa court. Evelin was acquitted of all accusations and Gianluca was convicted to 4 years and 6 months of prison (plus a fine of 15,000 euro) for ‘illegal possession of explosives’ (art. 1 and 2 of law 895/67) and ‘attempted crime’ (art. 56 c. p., Italian criminal code), while he was acquitted of the accusation of ‘manufacture or possession of explosive materials with the purpose of endangering public safety’ (art. 435 c. p.). The comrades were not tried under the ‘aggravating circumstance of the purpose of terrorism or subversion of the democratic order’ (in relation to art. 270 bis 1 c. p.) because for this aggravating circumstance, present during the investigation phase, there had been no indictment for trial. The prosecutor’s requests had been for 5 years and 6 months (plus a fine of 15,000 euro) for Evelin and 9 years and 6 months (plus 30,000 euro) for Gianluca. We recall that the latter is still under house arrest with all restrictions (prohibition of meetings with persons other than close family members, prohibition of communication and exit permits, etc.). Solidarity!
Italy: Solidarity presence at the sentencing hearing of the Diamante trial. Solidarity with Gianluca and Evelin! (Genoa, July 5, 2023)
On July 5th, the court of Genoa will hold the hearing for the sentence in the trial against anarchists Gianluca and Evelin, who were arrested on March 16th, 2022, within the Diamante investigation and charged with fabrication and possession of explosive and explosive material. During the hearings on June 7th and 8th, the prosecutor requested a sentence of 9 years and 6 months (plus a fine of 30,000 euros) for Gianluca and 5 years and 6 months (plus 15,000 euros) for Evelin. We recall that Gianluca — who is also under investigation in the Sibilla proceeding against the anarchist paper ‘Vetriolo’ — is still under house arrest with all the restrictions for the Diamante trial (the comrades were transferred to house arrest after a period of imprisonment in Rome’s Rebibbia prison), while Evelin was released in April 2022 following the re-examination hearing on the precautionary measures.
Along with the poster for the solidarity presence of July 5th, we also enclose some texts (in Italian) concerning the investigation and trial: “Ci troverete al nostro posto, che al vostro non ci sappiamo stare. A proposito dell’inchiesta Diamante” (‘You will find us in our place, we don’t know how to be in yours. About the Diamante investigation’, May 2022) [PDF], “Breve resoconto dell’udienza preliminare del processo di Genova contro Gianluca ed Evelin” (‘Short account of the preliminary hearing of the Genoa trial against Gianluca and Evelin’, December 2022) [PDF] and “Aggiornamenti sul processo di Genova a Gianluca ed Evelin” (‘Update on the Genoa trial against Gianluca and Evelin’, April 2023) [PDF].
SOLIDARITY PRESENCE AT THE SENTENCING HEARING OF THE DIAMANTE TRIAL
On July 5th, the first-degree verdict of the ‘Diamante’ trial involving anarchist comrades Evelin and Gianluca as defendants will be handed down at the Genoa court. We will be there for a warm greeting to them and to renew our hatred against the State and the judiciary.
Revolutionary and complicit solidarity with Gianluca and Evelin. For anarchy!
WEDNESDAY, JULY 5th, 2023, 9 A.M., IN FRONT OF THE COURT OF GENOA.
Italy: Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino were sentenced to 23 years and to 17 years and 9 months
While waiting for a more detailed text about the hearing, we inform that on June 26th, the Turin court of assizes of appeal established the extent of the convictions against anarchists Anna Beniamino and Alfredo Cospito in the Scripta Manent trial, sentencing them to 17 years and 9 months and 23 years respectively. Therefore, the possibility of a life sentence for Alfredo (and 27 years and 1 month for Anna), requested by the Turin public prosecutor’s office during the appeal hearing of December 5th, 2022, and later on June 19th and 26th, was definitively ruled out.
We remind that during the Scripta Manent trial — in addition to accusations of subversive association with the purpose of terrorism and subversion of the democratic order, attack with terrorist purposes, incitement to commit crimes aggravated by the purpose of terrorism, etc. — several accusations and convictions for massacre followed against Anna and Alfredo, first for the action in the bourgeois district of Crocetta (Turin, 2007) and later for the action against Caserma Allievi Carabinieri (Cadets of Carabinieri Barracks, Fossano, 2006). With the requalification by the court of cassation (July 6th, 2022) of the conviction for massacre against public safety (art. 422 of the Italian penal code) into massacre against State security (art. 285 of the penal code), the comrade risked a life sentence due to the prevalence of repeated recidivism over mitigating circumstances. The legislation that established the mandatory life sentence was subsequently amended by the constitutional court with the hearing on April 18th: not a “victory” for the rule of law or a “return” to the principles of the constitution, but a result achieved by the hunger strike against 41 bis prison regime and life imprisonment without possibility of parole and the international solidarity movement that developed between May 2022 and April 2023.
DEATH TO THE STATE AND CAPITAL! SOLIDARITY WITH ANNA BENIAMINO, ALFREDO COSPITO AND ALL IMPRISONED ANARCHISTS AND REVOLUTIONARIES!
[Translated into english and published by https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2023/07/02/alfredo-cospito-and-anna-beniamino-were-sentenced-to-23-years-and-17-years-and-9-months-italy/ | Originally published in italian, on June 27th, at https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2023/06/27/alfredo-cospito-e-anna-beniamino-sono-stati-condannati-a-23-anni-e-a-17-anni-e-9-mesi/]
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(IT) Alfredo Cospito e Anna Beniamino sono stati condannati a 23 anni e a 17 anni e 9 mesi
(EN) Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino were sentenced to 23 years and to 17 years and 9 months (Italy)
(FR) Alfredo Cospito et Anna Beniamino condamnés à 23 ans et à 17 ans et 9 mois (Italie)
UK: ‘Human Beings’ By Kevan Thakrar
When the state imprisons people, they disappear us. The whole process of becoming a prisoner is designed to strip the person of their personal autonomy. Individuality is something that must be removed and replaced with complete conformity, implemented through the oppressive control and restrictions of the prison environment. From the prison issue clothing, the degrading, routine searching of the person, to the uniform design of the cells, people are transformed by this state dominance into products to be handled within the warehouses that are prisons.
When the prisons disappear people, they segregate us. The restrictions and conditions are so much more severe than anywhere else within the Segregation Units of the High Security Prisons of the men’s prison estate. Deliberately so: intended to break the spirit of the men who, for various reasons, find ourselves detained within these punishment blocks.
These environments inflict solitary confinement upon their victims, often for an indefinite period of time. It can mean more than 22-hours a day locked in a cell in isolation and kept separated from all other prisoners during the brieftime allowed to shower and/or get locked in a cage outside like an animal for ‘exercise’ – and, in my case, it has continued for 13-years so far. Remember how it felt to have to stay at home during the Covid lockdown? Imagine how many more restrictions you could have survived, yet we must endure within segregation daily.
It would not be permissible to keep an animal in places like these, and there would be total outrage if a woman were to suffer such mistreatment, but men are seen culturally as tougher and much more deserving of this brutal inhumanity. From personal experience, I can confirm this differentiation of the sexes that comes through the bad politics of the chauvinistic and anti feminist approach – which portrays women as ‘damsels in distress’ in need of help, and men as warriors capable of toughness only seen in the ‘stronger sex’ – is absolute nonsense (and it is this concept that sets the foundation for the perpetuation of the culture of toxic masculinity and misogyny that this country is drowning in). No human could possibly survive such inhumanity undamaged. Continue reading “UK: ‘Human Beings’ By Kevan Thakrar”
Anarchist Amadeu Casellas has been imprisoned again (Spain)
After the last trial of comrade Amadeu, in which 8 years of jail were requested for a robbery in a watchmakers, the State sentenced him to 4 years in jail. As he had been waiting for trial, Amadeu had been released.
Once free, Amadeu, with the support of the soli-group, decided to submit an appeal to the Supreme Court, an appeal that is not accepted. So he choose to ask for the pardon, this was also rejected.
The court decided to execute the conviction, so they now want to imprison Amadeu again.
Taking into account that it being a sentence of less than 5 years, the lawyer requested that the third degree be granted directly. This was rejected, without consideration, so it makes us think that the only reason is because Amadeu is who he is.
We regret to communicate that Amadeu had to enter prison again on June 12.
So we shout again
Free Amadeu!!!!
Source: Libertat Amadeu
Italy: Statements of Alfredo Cospito & Anna Beniamino at the hearing on June 19, 2023 at the Turin Court of Appeals
We are circulating Alfredo Cospito’s statement at the June 19 hearing in the court of appeals in Turin on the calculation of sentences against Alfredo himself and Anna Beniamino as part of the Scripta Manent trial. The comrade was connected via video-conference from the Bancali prison in Sassari (as known, the regulations do not require in-person presence). Replications and sentencing against the comrades are postponed to a later hearing scheduled for Monday, June 26, at 12 noon, also at the Turin court.
Alfredo Cospito: Statement at the June 19, 2023 hearing at the Turin Court of Appeal
This statement of mine is closely related to the trial because it goes into the merits of the sanctioning treatment you imposed on me. Sanctioning treatment that is unconstitutional and contradicts your own laws. Sanctioning treatment, 41 bis, that distorts the very meaning of my imprisonment, imposing on me a senseless censure that limits my right to defense.
It is obvious to all how my trial affair has been used as a sort of cudgel by one political party, “the government,” against another political party, the so-called “opposition.” My last-minute transfer from one section to another in anticipation of the arrival of PD parliamentarians is a striking example. Which shows how the DAP and 41 bis have been exploited for political purposes.
These facts are closely related to this trial because they are the product of past political dynamics that led to our disproportionate prosecution and conviction for political slaughter. To shut my mouth now, at the only time I can defend myself would mean endorsing this dangerous and totalitarian drift. Before talking about Fossano and the so-called “massacre” (although there is little to say, it would be enough to look at the images of the damage of the tremendous explosion) for just two minutes I will have to mention three deaths, two of which I am somehow responsible for, the third death that of Cosimo occurred at the clinical center of Opera, ward 41 bis. Continue reading “Italy: Statements of Alfredo Cospito & Anna Beniamino at the hearing on June 19, 2023 at the Turin Court of Appeals”
$hile: In response to the repressive onslaught of the state against the comrades imprisoned in Santiago 1 and San Miguel. Words from Monica, Joaquin, Marcelo, Juan and Francisco.
Prison reality is constituted by a permanent tension where our convictions and the certainty of our position at all times come into play, inevitably.
This reality implies always bearing in mind that the jailer can dispose of our lives at any moment and that our strength lies precisely in having the certainty that we will face each of these adverse situations always with dignity.
Increased restrictions, transfers and sanctions are part of these impositions that today affect our comrades locked up in the prison-company Santiago 1 and comrade Itamar in the CPF of San Miguel.
The comrade today in the punishment zone is faced with threats of transfer and the crafty tricks of a jailer with pretensions of making a name for herself. It is necessary to emphasize that this situation is due to the fact that the comrade, together with other prisoners in Tower 5, has spread the word about the abusive practices of the jailers during the raids, in a clear attitude of struggle and confrontation.
The comrades, for their part, are fighting for their regrouping after they were removed from Module 1 with the excuse of dismantling it and were distributed among different units, and today several of them are in Module 88 of punishment. Continue reading “$hile: In response to the repressive onslaught of the state against the comrades imprisoned in Santiago 1 and San Miguel. Words from Monica, Joaquin, Marcelo, Juan and Francisco.”
Chile: Update on the situation of political prisoners in the concessioned prison $antiago 1
On May 31, 2023, we were informed by the relatives of the political prisoners located in the CDP Santiago 1 subject to preventive measure of preventive detention, that seven of them had been transferred from module 1 arbitrarily, without any explanation, considering that all of them had been designated to the maximum security module 1A of the penitentiary center by order of the Guarantee Courts for being cases of “public connotation”.
In view of this situation and the uncertainty regarding their location inside the prison, we were asked to visit them legally in order to know their situation.
On Thursday, June 1, we went to the prison to corroborate the state of health and the location of the political prisoners of Santiago 1, and with great difficulty we were able to see three of the seven accused who had been transferred.
We learned that the three were in different modules, they told us that they had passed through different modules, where the prison population refused to receive them due to overcrowding issues, directly denying them access or even, in some cases, forcibly removing them from the space once they were already inside. Despite this situation we were able to confirm that they are well, whole, firm and unbending. Continue reading “Chile: Update on the situation of political prisoners in the concessioned prison $antiago 1”
$hile: Transfers and dispersal of political prisoners in Santiago 1. Words by Claudio, Koda and Ambro.
On Wednesday, May 31, we were removed from Module 1 by orders of the gendarmerie, whose objective was to disarm the maximum security module. 6 political prisoners were sent to module 11 where for obvious reasons of number of people they did not let us in, then they sent us to classification where they offered us only medium danger modules (under our “consent”) threatening us that if we did not sign they would give us a random module.
Comrade Syde was sent only to module 16 where he decided not to stay so as not to leave us alone.
Of the 7 of us who were lifted only two were able to spend the night in a module (13 and 36) and the rest went to the punishments, a place where your life hangs by a thread.
We call to agitate, act and demand that our condition of political prisoners be recognized and that we be grouped in the same module.
We: Claudio, Ambro and Koda, who write these words have no knowledge of the situation of our comrades, we have heard rumors that those who came to the punishments lost all their belongings, we hope from the bottom of our hearts that they are safe and sound, otherwise, we hold directly responsible to
gendarmerie of chile.
Let’s fight and demand dignified conditions for the political prisoners.
Claudio
Ambro
Koda
Prison company Stgo 1
Source: Publicacion Refractario