Today, Feb. 3, the last hearing prior to sentencing in the appeal trial for the anti-border march (Brenner, May 2016) was held at the Bolzano court. This is the statement read in the courtroom, signed by some 20 defendants:
Statement at the appeal trial for the Brenner demonstration
If there is a place where words do not express mere opinions without consequences, this is certainly the court. In a few days, in this courtroom, it will be decided whether and for how long our future will consist of bars and prison.
This is no reason to keep silent.
In the repressive doggedness that the various public prosecutors’ offices in this country have long reserved for the anarchist movement – of which the 130 years in prison dispensed in the first-degree verdict in this trial is a good example -, in these days it is reaching its zenith. The state seems determined to condemn to death fellow anarchist Alfredo Cospito, now on his 107th day of an all-out hunger strike against the torture of 41 bis and against hostile life imprisonment. Alfredo’s determination, on the one hand, and institutional ferocity, on the other, decisively overshadow for us the outcome of this trial and our individual fates.
In a country marked by a long trail of real massacres carried out by state apparatuses with the manpower of neo-fascists-this is not only a historical truth, but even a judicial one-, to be convicted of “political massacre” are … two anarchists (Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino), for “a massacre without massacre attributed without evidence.” The most odious falsification of the anarchist idea and practice, taking Alfredo to the grave for living of 41 bis.
If this is the logic, then 130 years in prison can be doled out for a demonstration that caused, according to the same prosecution, 8,000 euros in damages. Consistency, as they say, is in the whole.
While there is talk of the Constitution, the rule of law and peace, reality tells us that the democratic governments of the West are leading us straight toward conflict with Russia, that is, on an inclined plane at the bottom of which is World War III, with the accompanying annihilation of terrestrial life.
The fury against dissent in general and against anarchists in particular is the home front of that war. The 41 bis is prison of war.
That is why Alfredo’s great courage and the solidarity he was able to muster are so frightening. They are part of that humanity that will never side with NATO bombs, just as our comrades in Russia do not side with Putin’s bombs.
While it is up to you to choose whether to join the chorus of repression that is nowadays more disproportionate, our thoughts and hearts are with Alfredo.
Bolzano, February 3, 2023
Giulia Perlotto, Carlo Casucci, Kamilla Bezerra, Massimo Passamani, Manuel Oxoli, Luca Rassu, Roberto Bottamedi, Marco Degosus, Arianna Viola, Mattia Magagna, Roberto Bonadeo, Agnese Trentin, Andrea Parolari, Stefano Diani, Benedetta Antonucci, Matteo Nascimben, Sirio Mafrini
Source: Il Rovescio & oltre il Ponte
Via: La Nemesi
