Prison Struggle – Page 13

Greece: Solidarity Day on February 9, 2024, for the final release of comrade Pola Roupa & the immediate release of comrade Nikos Maziotis EN/ FR / GR / DE / IT

Posted on 2024/02/05 by darknights

We call comrades in Greece and around the world to be vigilant and act in solidarity:

9/2| SOLIDARITY DAY FOR THE FINAL RELEASE OF
COMRADE POLA ROUPA & THE
IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF COMRADE NIKOS MAZIOTIS

Comrade Pola Roupa and Comrade Nikos Maziotis were sentenced to several years in prison for their participation and action in the guerilla organization Revolutionary Struggle.

They were imprisoned and served the combined 20-year prison sentence to which they were finally sentenced (after the “breaking” of their life sentence for the bombing attack on the Bank of Greece-branch of the European Central Bank-office of the International Monetary Fund in Greece, by Revolutionary Struggle Commando Lambros Fountas).

Comrade Pola Roupa served 8.5 years of real prison (13.5 years mixed), while her partner Nikos Maziotis has already served 11 years of “closed” prison and a total of 14 years mixed. That is, 3/5 of their sentence as state laws dictate.

Comrade Pola Roupa was released from prison with restrictive conditions on November 17, 2023, and a few days later, on November 28, 2023, the deputy prosecutor of Evia filed an appeal against her release, requesting that she be taken back to prison. This unprecedented event led comrade Pola Roupa before a new judicial council at the court of Chalkida on January 10, 2024, in order to judge from scratch whether she will remain free or continue to be a prisoner in the cells of the republic.

The definitive release of comrade P. Roupa from state hostage-taking is the immediate political issue as they seek to put her back in prison. The regime itself questions its jurisprudence and retracts itself: it initially “allows” the release of comrade P. Roupa, while subsequently attempting to reverse its decision. The aforementioned mandated minion of the political and judicial power – vice-prosecutor of Evia – with his move proves the extreme vindictive way of dealing with the political enemies of the state and capital, and especially the armed combatants.
Comrade N. Maziotis has received 4 parole denials in two years, because he remains unrepentant. This “special” treatment of exception does not stop, even after the many years of persecution and captivity imposed on them. Continue reading “Greece: Solidarity Day on February 9, 2024, for the final release of comrade Pola Roupa & the immediate release of comrade Nikos Maziotis EN/ FR / GR / DE / IT” →

Greece: Thanos Chatziangelou|…firm steps to the end

Posted on 2024/01/25 - 2024/01/25 by darknights

Don’t stop me. I’m dreaming.

We’ve lived bent over centuries of injustice.

Centuries of loneliness.

Now don’t. Don’t stop me.

Now and here and forever and ever and everywhere.

I dream of freedom…

I dream because I love.

Big dreams in the sky

Don’t ask. Don’t stop me.

It’s now to restore

the supreme act of moral right.

To make a poem of Life.

And Life into action.

It’s a dream that I can I can I can

I LOVE YOU

And you don’t stop me I don’t dream. I’m living.

I’m waiting! I’m waiting for those looks, those looks, those looks, those looks, those looks, those looks, those looks. Fearful faces behind the robes of blind justice. Sons and daughters – the genetic children of Themis – critics of justice, who steel their filth with the law of silence. And in their path, the fates of men dragging against the earth like a ragged rag.

I wait! I expect the spectators to be ashamed, when they are silent while they suffer. They build the principality of submission with empty denials and conventions. With prayers and pleas, with begging and misery. Political misery. And they weave their slavery, one knot at a time. One knot at a time. Till all the light is hidden.

I’m waiting! I go back and wait. Among men forgotten and excommunicated. Carrying a heavy burden, for my ego, for the us. For the we to exist. For the cold not to become an unbearable totality. So every morning, in the mirror of my cell, I see a human face. Tired, yes, but human.

With an inert conscience and rigid pride, I serve the denial and wait. This day and the thousands of nights in its wake. Without spotless moons and fixed sunsets, without dry rains and untouched winds.

As many times as it takes and from the beginning.

I am defending ANARCHY.

Thanos Chatziangelou, imprisoned member of the Anarchist Action Organization

C’ Wing, Larissa Prison

24/1/2024

Source: athens.indymedia

DN Note

On January 24, the second application for suspension of the sentence of comrade Thanos has begun to be examined by the five-member Criminal Court of Appeal in Larissa. It has already been rejected 1st September 2023 and his request for a short leave.

Greece: Nikos Maziotis on his 4th rejection of parole

Posted on 2024/01/25 by darknights

Nikos Maziotis on his 4th rejection of parole

The last board of misdemeanors of Lamia (29/9/2023) rejected my request (for the 4th time) for parole on the same grounds as the 3 previous ones, i.e. the disciplinary records for which I have been punished in the past have been deleted and should not normally count under the penal code for parole. But this time the board of misdemeanors of Lamia, in the reasoning of the rejection, went a step further than the previous boards by proving that it has the same logic that the institutions of the bribe-taking state, the post-conflict state and the junta used to have, when they asked for statements of repentance and renunciation from fighters as it also proves to have the same logic of the Inquisition.

I am quoting the contested passage of the decision verbatim:

[…] “However, the repeated commission of serious misdemeanors that also constitute criminal offences demonstrates the applicant’s lack of self-discipline and compliance with the basic rules of the penal system, his constant tendency to commit criminal acts and therefore his insufficient imprisonment and the his lack of moral improvement, for the purpose of his conversion and the possibility of his smooth reintegration into society in the event of his release from the detention centre. In addition, during the applicant’s personal appearance at the council remotely, through technological means, the latter showed particularly aggressive behaviour towards the council, as well as complete disrespect for justice and the penal system, and stated that he considers himself a political prisoner, while at the same time, he did not show that he had realized particular disrespect for the criminal acts he had committed.

Moreover, according to his statement before the council, confinement is only a punishment and cannot serve any other purpose, such as the imprisonment of prisoners. From the above it follows that the conduct of the applicant during the serving of his sentence makes it necessary to continue his detention in order to prevent him from committing new criminal acts. In particular, the above-mentioned prisoner has repeatedly committed disciplinary offences which he does not seem to recognize as wrong, which suggests that any good behaviour he has been showing lately while serving his sentence is pretentious and only apparently good, apparently awaiting his conditional release, and it testifies to his inability to comply with the rules of the prison and, by extension, social coexistence, as an element of his character, but also a constant tendency towards delinquent behaviour.With this behaviour, the applicant demonstrated that the purpose of the legislator was not fulfilled in his case by introducing him to the institution of conditional release, which is nothing more than a strong psychological motivation for the convict for his intended moral improvement , because for the time of his stay in prison, he has an interest in living according to the law, expecting his conditional release, and during the time of probation, he also has an interest in living according to the law, fearing his re-incarceration in prison. This is how his moral conformity and improvement is achieved, as he becomes addicted to the philanthropic life and becomes the creator of his own honest life. All the above objectives were not fulfilled in the case of the present convict, that is to say, he proved, with his behaviour detailed above, that he has not been sufficiently punished, a fact that he himself admitted before the council, and does not present the guarantees that he will lead an honest life as a dismissed person and will not commit new criminal acts. The repeated commission of disciplinary offences during the time of his detention demonstrates a lack of penal improvement and a real desire for law-abiding living and his lack of integration, despite his many years of stay in detention facilities…”, concluding that for all these reasons the my request for parole to prevent the alleged commission of further criminal acts. What exactly does this “monument” of inquisitive argumentation say? I am not being released on parole because:

I declare – after their own question – that I am a political prisoner.
I do not perceive the particular iniquity of the criminal acts that I have committed, meaning of course the action of the Revolutionary Struggle, which I do not consider to be either criminal or “terrorism”.
I think as I stated to the board that imprisonment is purely a punishment and that it does not ‘rehabilitate’, adding something which they do not state in the reasoning of the decision, that they should be satisfied that I have served the greater part of my sentence and that I will not change character and be “imprisoned” not in a million years. Continue reading “Greece: Nikos Maziotis on his 4th rejection of parole” →

UK: Civilization is a cancer. Letter by imprisoned anarchist comrade Toby Shone

Posted on 2024/01/22 - 2024/01/22 by darknights

“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”

– Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Some matters should be denounced in the strongest terms, one of these is the way prisoners health is addressed. Neglect and mistreatment are endemic, if not malice, institutionalised. I was scheduled an MRI scan and blood tests for tumour markers in late October 2023 at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. I should have been put on medical hold and provided that treatment, but I was transferred to the long term High Security Estate where I did not receive the blood test by the prison medical team until late December. The results of those blood tests have never been disclosed to me by the prison medical authorities. In fact, I only got the results after a comrade called my Bristol NHS Oncology Unit. Twice the prison team have failed to facilitate a telephone consultation with my doctor to receive the blood test outcome. The prison medical system has totally failed in every way to provide continuity in my oncology pathway. My scheduled MRI scan, which I have not been given any information about, is not being declared to me for fear I will use the opportunity to make an escape. The last time, the despicable cowards of the prison service zip tied my hands before I was placed in the coffin of the MRI scanner, an indignity that I will not accept again even at risk of my health. Prisoners die each day chained to their hospice beds watched by bastards with keys and batons. Prison is an abomination and the only future we are fighting for is one in which it is destroyed forever. I will live and die in the way I choose.

Death to the state!

Toby, 18th of January 2024, HMP Garth

Slovakia: Ladislav Kuc is free! – Prisoner support

Posted on 2024/01/22 - 2024/01/22 by darknights

Ladislav Kuc is a Slovakian animal liberation activist who has served a 12 year sentence after an explosive action in front of a McDonalds that resulted in no injuries or harm to anyone.

He was imprisoned on the 1st January 2012 and over the years his sentence was appealed over and over, at some point facing 25 years with the terrorism enhancements. He has served 12 years and is now out of prison.

His time in prison has been difficult and he has been denied basic medical care so he has spent the past few weeks sorting out doctors appointments.

On communications with him, he sounds incredibly grateful for all the support he has received, from donations to letters and has sent love to all who have reached out over the years.

Life back from prison is not easy transition. Lado has been in prison for over a decade, so a lot of things have changed, but also he still owes a big fine and money to his lawyer. We haven’t worked out how much is owed yet, so for now we are just re-sharing PhillyABC’s fundraiser for him, until we work out better options to get money to him and how much is actually needed.

Please join us in wishing Ladislav a huge welcome back to the outside and please, please donate a few coins to the fundraiser. He owes 1000s and needs all the support he can get. Even 5 USD is a massive help.

Donate here: https://fundrazr.com/027Cec

WELCOME BACK LADO!

Source: Unoffensive Animal

$hile: Faced with life imprisonment in disguise, action is always worthwhile. Statement by Francisco Solar.

Posted on 2024/01/10 - 2024/01/10 by darknights

Faced with life imprisonment in disguise, action is always worthwhile

Was anything else expected from Power? Although the sentence of 86 years in prison has provoked surprise and some consternation, the Power acted accordingly. It has punished forceful actions directed against its defenders and representatives, the audacity of the open rebellion that hit their spaces that they believed impregnable and also the unabashed and unambiguous vindication of such attacks, demonstrating that they perceive the danger implicit in the dissemination of ideas and actions.

The State has acted as it is and that should not surprise us.

It proceeded as it has historically done when it has been directly attacked, when they have really felt the threat of seeing their lives at risk and when, moreover, it has not found submission or repentance.

Along with seeking to bury me for life in this place, this sentence clearly constitutes an intimidating signal for all anarchist spaces and individualities that openly position themselves for combat insofar as it intends to put an end to offensive practices that refuse to disappear and that demonstrated their scope and potential in the October revolt. It is, in short, a blow to anarchism of action as a whole that reflects the threat it poses to Power, which, although it may sound paradoxical, shows that the insurrectional path fulfills part of its purposes. The fact that we are being persecuted, that years ago they created a specialized anti-anarchist unit which they have now replicated to fight organized crime, and that we are given 86-year sentences, are indicators that the path of action worries and worries the powerful.

The insistence and, at times, the intensification of anarchic action has led to a forceful condemnation that clearly has a demobilizing pretension and a sense of political revenge.

However, it is undeniable that lately there has not been an advance in the anarchic offensive, presenting, rather, a stagnation and even a decrease in the development and multiplication of transgressive practices. I think this is due to multiple aspects among which are the repressive variable as well as a post revolt effect that, apparently, has led to demobilization in several environments and individualities. I believe that a deeper analysis of this issue deserves a more detailed analysis, which is not the case here.

And if you ask me if it was worth it. I answer not only that it was worth it, but that it is and will be absolutely worth it. That taking the individual decision to rebel, to take revenge and to put an end, even for an instant, to the impunity of the powerful is one of the most beautiful moments that can be experienced. That linking word and action, going beyond mere slogans emptied of content, strengthens and gives meaning to an individual and collective position of conflict. That taking ideas to the realm of the possible is always necessary and indispensable if one freely decides to confront Power, even if it costs decades of imprisonment and even life. Action is always worthwhile.

This concealed life sentence, which is one of the highest international sentences against an anarchist, is obviously intended to pacify, but it is up to us to ensure that this signal achieves its goal. It is in our will and decision to make these sentences completely lose their meaning and even constitute one more motive to attack, as the “Grupo de acción 6 de julio – Nueva Subversión” rightly exposed after the recent explosive attack against a bank branch.

Here inside, understanding, as I pointed out a few years ago, that anarchists in prison are active comrades who are temporarily locked up, in opposition and avoiding the limiting pigeonholing of the figure of “prisoner”, is that I intend to continue contributing to the different initiatives of the anarchic struggle. To insist on the permanent struggle for the annulment of the sentences of the military justice and with the campaign for the liberation of comrade Marcelo Villarroel, the freedom of anarchist and subversive prisoners and the destruction of the prison society.

Anarchist and subversive prisoners to the streets!

Let the prisons explode!

Long live anarchy!

Francisco Solar Dominguez

La Gonzalina Prison – Rancagua.

December 2023

Source: Informativo Anarquista

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.