DIGOS [General Investigations and Special Operations Division]

Italy: Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino sentenced to 23 and 17 years in prison

Posted on 2024/04/30 by darknights

From: No 41 bis- international mobilisation

“The sentences of 23 years and 17 years and 9 months of imprisonment to the anarchists Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino are final. The Court of Cassation confirms the sentence bis of the Court of Appeal of Turin. The requests of the defense and of the prosecution of Turin were rejected, and they insisted to the end on obtaining life imprisonment. Rage and love for our comrades! With the practices of which they are accused! Alfredo out since 41 bis!”

Thus communicated the comrades from Italy the final sentences imposed on Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino in what was the trial of the Scripta Manent case, which sought to blame both comrades for “political massacre”, based on the action against the Carabinieri school of Fossano.

During the trial at the Court of Cassation in Rome, an appeal regarding the mitigating factors in the conviction for “political massacre” was reviewed, finally reconfirming the sentences already established in June 2023, after the long hunger strike of Alfredo Cospito against 41 bis, which lasted 182 days. In this way, both comrades remain in prison and under the same isolation measures.

It should be noted that during the early morning of April 22 the DIGOS of Turin “carried out 19 precautionary measures (3 house arrests, 1 prohibition of residence and 15 obligations of residence and daily signature) in the framework of the so-called Operation City related to the events of the march of March 4, 2023 in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito”, this as part of a series of repressive intimidation against those who mobilized in support of the comrade.

Despite the persecution and the continued imprisonment of Anna and Alfredo, the signs of solidarity continue, strengthening them from the other side of the wall.

Source: La Zarzamora

Via: Informativo Anarquista

Italy – Operation City: eighteen measures of judicial control for a demonstration against prison and 41-bis

Posted on 2024/04/30 by darknights

At dawn on Monday April 22, DIGOS issued nineteen judicial control measures against compas, as part of a repressive operation in connection with the demonstration which, on March 4, 2023, set Turin ablaze, against the prison and 41-bis, alongside anarchist prisoner Alfredo Cospito and others. A demonstration in which hammers, homemade cudgels and cobblestones struck and smashed to pieces symbols of the violence of the state and capital, and which ended right in the courtyard of Radio Blackout, surrounded by the forces of law and order: for a few hours, the insipid normality of existence in an increasingly concentrationary city was interrupted.

Three house arrests for comrades from Turin, Cuneo and Rome, seven residency obligations with daily check-in with the cops, one residency ban, eight obligations with daily check-in with the cops, 75 comrades under investigation, all over Italy. They called this umpteenth repressive operation, coordinated by the Turin Public Prosecutor’s Office (prosecutors Paolo Scavi and Enzo Bucarelli), “City”. The charges are devastation and pillage, violence, assault and assault against police officers, with aggravating circumstances.

At the time, Alfredo was on hunger strike, as were other inmates, against the prison and the 41-bis torture regime to which the anarchist prisoner is still subjected today, in Sassari prison, along with 740 other inmates whom the state wants to annihilate.
This operation follows on from all the others which, in recent months, have hit hard at dozens of compas who have committed themselves to an international solidarity movement and to a mobilization which has intensified since 2022.

On April 24, at the Court of Cassation in Rome, what should be the final stage of the Scripta Manent trial will take place, one of the consequences of which is Alfredo’s confinement in the 41-bis regime. […]

Attaque Note: a radio interview with one of Rome’s comrades goes into more detail on this repressive operation, on the charge of devastation and pillage (which can lead to extremely heavy sentences), in addition to those of resistance, violence and threats against a person holding public authority, also in competition, and those of subversive propaganda and apology for a crime or misdemeanor. The investigators paid particular attention to the organization of the event and the way it was run, with damage estimated at around 630,000 euros.
This is the second time that the Turin Public Prosecutor’s Office has targeted the compas who took part in the mobilization in solidarity with Alfredo, following the proceedings in July 2023.
Solidarity with Guido, Lello and Daniele and all the others!

Original source & radio recordings in Italian: Radio Black Out

Extract/Summarisation via: Attaque

Italy: Solidarity presence on the occasion of the appeal trial for Operation Diamante and presentation of the special issue of “Bezmotivny” (Genoa, Feb. 14, 2024) + Some considerations from the trial against Gianluca and Evelin

Posted on 2024/02/05 - 2024/02/05 by darknights

Solidarity presence on the occasion of the appeal trial for Operation Diamante and presentation of the special issue of “Bezmotivny” (Genoa, Feb. 14, 2024) + Some considerations from the trial against Gianluca and Evelin

Solidarity presence at the appeal trial for Operation Diamante and presentation of the special issue of “Bezmotivny”

Genoa, Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Solidarity presence: 8:30 a.m., in front of the Genoa Court, Portoria Square.

On Feb. 14, the appeal hearing of the trial involving defendant anarchist comrade Gianluca, arrested in March 2022 and still under house arrest with all restrictions, will be held.

The first-instance trial had ended on July 5, 2023 with an acquittal for the comrade indicted in the same case and a sentence for Gianluca to four years and six months in prison (plus 15,000 euros fine) for “illegal possession of explosives” (Articles 1 and 2 of Law 895/67) and “attempted crime” (Article 56 c. p.).

Solidarity with the imprisoned and indicted comrades!

Debate: 5:30 p.m., at the documentation space ” Il Grimaldello,” Via della Maddalena 81/R.

Operation Scripta Manent (2016) and the subsequent trial (2017-’22) also involved 13 convictions for the publication of the latest edition of ” Croce Nera Anarchica ” and the management of some websites. Similarly, a number of subsequent operations involved revolutionary publications: operation Sibila (2021), aimed particularly against “Vetriolo,” and the more recent Scripta Scelera (2023), aimed at “dismantling” the fortnightly “Bezmotivny.” Beginning with the publication of the special issue of “Bezmotivny,” we discuss the reasons for these proceedings: the war policies of the Italian state, the warning it intends to give to the revolutionary movement, and the need for the state to strike at the theoretical-practical combination of anarchism.

To follow: aperitif benefit prisoners.

https://spazio-di-documentazione-il-grimaldello.noblogs.org/ – grimaldello@canaglie.org

PDF: Solidarity presence at the appeal trial for Operation Diamante and presentation of the special issue of “Bezmotivny” (in Italian)
Continue reading “Italy: Solidarity presence on the occasion of the appeal trial for Operation Diamante and presentation of the special issue of “Bezmotivny” (Genoa, Feb. 14, 2024) + Some considerations from the trial against Gianluca and Evelin” →

Milan, Italy: Sentence from the trial for the clashes and resistance to the eviction of Corvaccio Squat and Rosa Nera on November 18, 2014

Posted on 2023/07/06 by darknights

Sentence from the trial for the clashes and resistance to the eviction of the Corvaccio Squat and the Rosa Nera on November 18, 2014 in Milan

On Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2014, the anarchist occupations Corvaccio Squat and Rosa Nera – Occupied Anarchist Space, located on Via Ravenna in Milan’s Corvetto neighborhood, were being evicted with a huge number of trucks, cops, DIGOS, helicopters, and the like.

On July 3, 2023, the trial process for those resisting the eviction and the ensuing day of struggle that lasted well into the evening came to an end, with sentences of up to eight months.

Support the occupations, against all evictions: solidarity and resistance!

[Taken from the web and republished at https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2023/07/05/sentenza-del-processo-per-gli-scontri-e-la-resistenza-allo-sgombero-del-corvaccio-squat-e-del-rosa-nera-il-18-novembre-2014-a-milano/]

To put the facts in context, below is a text published in November 2014:

Corvaccio resists, Corvetto ignites
Communiqué for the evictions of the Corvaccio squat and the Rosa Nera anarchist space

An abnormal awakening for Corvetto on Tuesday, November 18: in Via Ravenna instead of cappuccino and brioche, breakfast with tear gas and barricades.

It is 7 a.m. when the neighborhood, already alert and on the alert for the much heralded “eviction emergency,” notices the approach of a large number of pickup trucks. They head for Ravenna Street and close with vehicles and men two entire blocks with the clear intention of evicting Corvaccio and Rosa Nera. The former is an occupied house in which little less than a dozen rebels have lived for more than two years, while the latter an an anarchist space that for almost eight months has been hosting concerts and aperitifs in support of the prisoners, meetings, screenings and assemblies on various issues of struggle, and where at low speed a drumming class, a screen-printing workshop, a gymnasium and a documentation center are also coming to life.

The fierce press campaign, which for a week now in all newspapers nationwide has been painting those two spaces as the nerve centers of a phantom “black immovables,” turns out to be insubstantial in comparison to the relationships of trust and commonality, which day by day are growing among the neighborhood’s occupants, who are now accustomed to taking to the streets to resist the evictions together. Continue reading “Milan, Italy: Sentence from the trial for the clashes and resistance to the eviction of Corvaccio Squat and Rosa Nera on November 18, 2014” →

Italy: Updates on the Genoa trial of Gianluca and Evelin

Posted on 2023/04/28 by darknights

Updates on the Genoa trial of Gianluca and Evelin

UPDATES on the GENOA TRIAL of GIANLUCA and EVELIN.

The undoubted crisis that the capitalist mode of production is going through today manifests itself in an economy that bases its wealth on war, on the robbery and plundering of the commodity-rich global south, and in the sharpening of the class struggle.

While it is true that capitalism continually seeks “alternative” solutions that will ensure its continuation, often succeeding in finding them and thus creating new pockets of profit for the market, it is also true that the resource crisis and especially today’s climate crisis will not grant alternatives to this parasitic presence for long.
The commodity crisis affects not only the production of secondary consumer goods in the technology, war and digital industries, but also primary resources such as water. This leads not only to a change in geopolitical arrangements, but also to internal conflicts between exploited and exploiters as the example of reservoirs in France or mining in Germany highlights. Objectively, even in Italy, beyond the obvious shortcomings of radical opposition initiatives, the “hunt for ore” or residual gas supplies are accentuating the extractive machine of ruthless multinationals that destroy territories to increase their profits, with the favor of state concessions.

But the crisis of production is a possible prospect today, which is why states are organizing in an attempt to assert their interests and prevent radical struggles and forms of internal guerrilla warfare.

Against this backdrop the authoritarian turn underway in Italy and elsewhere takes shape, which on the one hand is evident in the adoption of economic and “social” policies aimed at ever greater class exploitation, and on the other in the tightening of repression against political crimes.

In the last period the authoritarian turn taken by the state has clearly and heavily characterized the exclusively political reading of social events and struggles by entering even the judicial spheres. It has strongly conditioned the use of repression with the application of punitive instruments that remain an objective problem for political prisoners, such as 41 bis, hostility and crimes arbitrarily reinterpreted, reformulated and used in a vindictive way as massacre and associative crimes. Continue reading “Italy: Updates on the Genoa trial of Gianluca and Evelin” →

Italy: About the recent searches ordered by prosecutors of Rome and Massa as part of the investigations concerning some initiatives in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito (March 3 and 9, 2023)

Posted on 2023/03/12 by darknights

We publish in English two updates on recent investigations by the prosecutors of Massa (searches and precautionary measures of March 9th) and Rome (searches of March 3rd).

Searches and precautionary measures for the demonstration in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito and all revolutionary prisoners on September 10, 2022, in Marina di Carrara

Yesterday, March 9th, searches were carried out against three comrades in Crotone, Lecce and Spoleto. The three were also given the precautionary measure of being obliged to present themselves daily at the police station for facts dating back to last September in Carrara where, during a demonstration in solidarity with Alfredo, a Lega electoral stand was encountered. There are seven suspects in total, five for robbery, two for defacement and all seven for election campaign interruption.

Some of those under investigation

Searches in Rome and Umbria in connection with two initiatives in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito on hunger strike (March 3, 2023)

At dawn on March 3rd, a conspicuous number of agents of the repressive forces – including DIGOS of the state police and ROS of the Carabinieri, on a warrant from the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office in the person of the public prosecutor Francesco Dall’Olio, already responsible for other investigations against the anarchist movement – appeared at the doors of some homes in Rome and Umbria to carry out searches on eight anarchists, all under investigation in connection with two initiatives in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito held in Rome last November. In addition to carrying out house searches against the suspects, we learn that other comrades present in the same homes and, lastly, a space (Circolo Anarchico ‘La Faglia’, in Foligno) were also searched.

The charges against the suspects are ‘manufacture or possession of explosive materials’, ‘unannounced demonstration’ and ‘private violence’. The searches involved seizures inside the homes, especially of anarchist and revolutionary publications.

We publish the communiqué circulated on the morning of March 3rd and – in order to give an overview of the initiatives on which this new ‘incursion’ by the servants of the state focused – the text read during the interruption of the play at the Argentina Theatre on November 26th.

Searches in Rome and Umbria

Searches have been in progress since the morning of today, March 3rd, in Rome, Spoleto and Foligno against eight anarchist comrades, on charges relating to an initiative in front of the RAI headquarters in via Romagnoli in Rome on November 13rd (art. 435 of penal code and art. 18 TULPS) and the interruption of a play at Teatro Argentina, also in Rome, on the following November 26th (art. 610 of penal code). Both initiatives took place in the context of the mobilisation in solidarity with anarchist comrade Alfredo Cospito, on hunger strike against 41 bis prison regime and life imprisonment without possibility of parole since October 20th. Furthermore, in the context of the same repressive operation, anarchist space Circolo Anarchico ‘La Faglia’, in Foligno, is currently being searched.

Solidarity with the investigated and searched comrades.

Alfredo out from 41 bis! Solidarity with all imprisoned anarchists and revolutionaries! Continue reading “Italy: About the recent searches ordered by prosecutors of Rome and Massa as part of the investigations concerning some initiatives in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito (March 3 and 9, 2023)” →

Rome, Italy: Clashes and demonstration in Trastevere in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito on 101st day of hunger strike

Posted on 2023/01/31 by darknights

Clashes and demonstration in Trastevere in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito on 101st day of hunger strike (Rome, Jan. 28, 2023)

We publish a brief contribution on the demonstration held on Saturday, January 28 in Rome in solidarity with comrade Alfredo Cospito at 101 days into his hunger strike. Near the concentration in Piazza Trilussa–which lasted a few hours and from which a procession had failed to leave–after some of those present had deflected out of the encirclement, there were some clashes with the repressive forces, shortly thereafter in trouble due to finding themselves partially surrounded and the determination of comrades to hold the streets (but who did, however, manage to stop a comrade near Piazza Trilussa). After the clashes, a procession was held in the alleys of Trastevere.

At the end of the procession several dozen comrades were stopped by DIGOS, riot police, and carabinieri. All 41 people stopped during the day, who were taken to police headquarters and released without restrictions as of the early hours of Sunday 29, were charged with Article 337 c. p. (resistance to a public official). We reproduce below a brief information note released on January 29 itself.

In these days when the comrade’s health condition is rapidly and dramatically worsening, with this initiative the comrades present affirmed the importance of a presence and consequent confrontational practice to be held in the streets, in solidarity with Alfredo and in support of the hunger strike. Let us continue the struggle with anger and determination. Get Alfredo out of 41 bis!

* * *

Yesterday in Rome street fight against 41 bis and hostile life imprisonment, with Alfredo Cospito on hunger strike for 101 days. Police wanted to surround the protesters, remained surrounded. The celere in total confusion charged the DIGOS twice, managing to send one of them to the hospital. The piazza chief wanted to prevent a harmless procession, had two hours of wild marching through Trastevere, which resisted by barricading itself and repelling numerous charges in the alleys.

While it is true that a good part of the 41 stopped could have been avoided if it had been realized a few minutes earlier that the party was ending, this does not detract one iota from the message of anger at our comrade’s now imminent execution coming from the streets. In fact, if anything, it reinforces it.

A big thank you to all the rebels and solidarity with all those who have been charged.

Long live anarchy!

Source: La Nemesi

Italy: You’ll find us in our place as we can’t stay in yours. On the “Diamante” investigation

Posted on 2022/06/25 - 2022/06/25 by darknights

You’ll find us in our place as we can’t stay in yours. On the “Diamante” investigation

At dawn on 16th March 2022 two anarchists were arrested in Rome by the DIGOS police and the ROS carabinieri on orders of the Power of Attorney of Genoa and Public Prosecutor Federico Manotti.

The charge is fabrication and possession of explosive material (article 1 and 2, bill 895/67) with the intent to attack public safety (article 435 of the penal code), all this with purposes of terrorism and subversion of the democratic order (article 270 bis 1) in collusion with other persons yet to be identified.

Alongside this investigation named “Diamante”, there is another open investigation named “Tenaglia” following incendiary sabotages on pylons, repeaters and server booths which occurred in 2021 in Liguria, and even episodes that happened many years ago, listed, even only formally, and mentioned in previous investigations and failed investigations by the same prosecutor in Genoa. This seems to be more like a strategy to exaggerate the repressive operation, given that there is little or nothing that concretely links these episodes to the reason for the arrest for possession of explosive material.

Obviously in the investigation there is the usual revisitation of significance and analyses often incoherent and botched, which intend to schematise the “trends” of the anarchist movement into “formations” and a superficial job of copy-and-paste on things already written in other anti-anarchist investigations, which we absolutely think are pointless to dwell on.

The investigation that led to the arrest started with the finding of explosive material, electrical material and other devices in a forest in Liguria in June 2021. In the papers of the investigation we read that containers were found by an unknown person who later declared he was looking for drugs, and who after the finding went to report it to the carabinieri together with a friend. The pair collaborated with the police and gave directions and descriptions, and were considered suspects, investigated, intercepted and shadowed by the same carabinieri they turned to, and were later exonerated.

After the finding of the containers, the carabinieri set up photo/video traps to “catch” anyone who went near the area. Subsequently a male person was photographed from behind near the spot, a person whom the police declared they recognized and had identified. Continue reading “Italy: You’ll find us in our place as we can’t stay in yours. On the “Diamante” investigation” →

Italy: Update about the comrades arrested on March 16th: Evelin also transferred to house arrest and coordinates of solidarity fund

Posted on 2022/04/08 by darknights

Evelin was transferred to house arrest in Rovereto on March 26th. Both she and Gianluca are subject to all restrictions (no communication with each other, no communication with persons other than close family members, no leaving the perimeter of the house even to buy food, no receiving correspondence, etc., and periodic checks by the police).

A solidarity fund has been set up to support the expenses of the two comrades (currently the fund is only active on italian territory). The coordinates for sending contributions are:

Postepay account number: 4023 6010 2286 1819
Tax code: BGNPPL79M18E472O

[Note: The comrades were arrested in Rome on March 16th. The investigation and the repressive operation are the result of a joint work between the ROS (“Special Operational Grouping” of carabinieri) and the DIGOS (“General Investigations and Special Operations Division”, political police), coordinated by the Genoa public prosecutor’s office. The two comrades are charged with “possession of deflagrant and explosive material, attempted manufacture of improvised explosive devices, as well as possession of deflagrant material with the aim of attacking public safety”, in conspiracy with unknown persons, in relation to the discovery by the repressive forces of explosive material in June 2021 in a wood near Genoa].

Italy: Update about the comrades arrested on March 16: Gianluca transferred to house arrest

Posted on 2022/03/26 by darknights

On Wednesday, March 16, two anarchist comrades, Evelin and Gianluca, were arrested in Rome. The investigation and the repressive operation are the result of a joint work between the ROS (“Special Operational Grouping” of carabinieri) and the DIGOS (“General Investigations and Special Operations Division”, political police), coordinated by the Genoa public prosecutor’s office. The two comrades are charged with “possession of deflagrant and explosive material, attempted manufacture of improvised explosive devices, as well as possession of deflagrant material with the aim of attacking public safety”, in conspiracy with unknown persons.

On March 23, Gianluca was transferred to house arrest. Currently (March 25), Evelin remains imprisoned in the women’s Rebibbia prison.

Revolutionary solidarity with Gianluca and Evelin and all imprisoned anarchists!

The address of the comrade:

Evelin Sterni
C. C. di Roma Rebibbia femminile
via Bartolo Longo 92
00156 Roma (Italy)