Life Imprisonment – Dark Nights

Italy: Statement filed by Francesco Rota in the course of the preliminary hearing in the Sibilla case

Posted on 2025/02/02 - 2025/02/02 by darknights

Statement filed by Francesco Rota in the course of the preliminary hearing in the Sibilla case

I would never have written this statement if I had not felt that under attack was not only a path of analysis and critical insight, thus an important portion of my life, but above all a fellow anarchist whom the state in recent years has intended to bury under a blanket of isolation aimed at annihilation, because according to the anti-terrorist organs he was representative of decades of experience in revolutionary struggle. Then again, it was clear that a transfer to 41 bis and a life sentence amounted to attempted annihilation. The international solidarity movement of the years 2022-’23, however, by the force of the actions taken, first broke the silence and later spoiled the precarious political balance on which this attempt was based.

After several years of investigations by the Milan prosecutor’s office, aimed at attempting to somehow link the defendants to actions of attack, the Perugia prosecutor’s office inherited as part of an investigation into an anarchist space those acts of investigation concerning the editing and distribution of the newspaper for which indictment is being sought today. Coming to these last years, here then appears the shameless intention to employ this proceeding as a 41 bis support function against Alfredo Cospito. This intention, together with the ongoing attack against revolutionary anarchist publications in the context of the belligerent policies of the last executives, is therefore one of the reasons why I am filing this statement today. In this sense, I again express my solidarity with Alfredo Cospito without half-measures, reconfirm what I have already stated at the review hearing on the precautionary measures on March 14, 2023, and reiterate the reasons for my visceral participation in the 2022-’23 mobilization against 41 bis and hostile life imprisonment.

How to act against the overall technological turn that has been taking place for decades by fighting it now, before it is too late? What implications in social confrontation and revolutionary struggle do the ongoing technological process and the changes that have taken place in social reality in recent decades have? And how to equip for this? What clash can take place in a society where capacities for class struggle and organization are manifesting with extreme difficulty? Who are the exploiters, the masters, today? These are some of the questions posed between the pages of the newspaper under indictment, where the prosecution instead intends to see at all costs instigation and orienting and terrorist capabilities. However, this is not what I am talking about: analyses on the terrain of revolutionary struggle are not the concern of the courts, which by their very constitution cannot comprehend the essence of anarchists’ struggles.

I have known anarchism for as long as I can remember and, amazed, without anyone having pointed me in any direction, I discovered the ideas and practice of anarchists from the words of comrades, from their example and from the writings found in that anarchist propaganda that is today being prosecuted as incitement to crime with the aggravating circumstance of the purpose of terrorism. It is therefore difficult to describe what the texts of anarchism meant to me, with their density and depth of analysis of social reality: some had the revealing ability to shed light on only apparently marginal aspects that I had never before considered, concerning the things of the world and life in their totality; others, on the other hand, shocked me in their being a slap in the face against all accommodation and compromise.

Anarchism does not only imply the existence of a movement, the anarchist movement, which only at the cost of a gross oversimplification we could call first and foremost a political movement, but it has always been something more, something profoundly different that speaks of the dream and possible realization of a different life, radically different from the one we live today. Anarchism implies the undermining of our guarantees, of many of our certainties. Fighting for anarchism therefore inevitably means entering the dimension of risk inherent in the desire for integral, authentic freedom, certainly not the artificial democratic “freedoms” of which courts, inquisitors and butlers of the state stand as champions.

This knowledge of anarchism of mine has therefore been an enormous fortune, and today I cannot help but think of the absence of an anarchist, of my father, who made this fortune possible, untying the intuitions of the heart from the strings of petty logic and bringing up that cry for freedom that cries out in our hearts.

So you will understand that I do not turn to you today to beg for something, to advance justifications, to initiate a confrontation, to deny something that for me is not only the passion of all time, but the indissoluble essence of my ideas, my very life.

Francesco Rota

Source: La Nemesi

Greece: Christos Tsakalos – ‘Freedom with an expiration date’

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

Upon leaving the prison gates, every inmate solemnly swears to never look back. Nearly all pledge this vow…

Returning, the overwhelming sense is that the prison has been awaiting your inevitable return. Stepping into the cells of Nafplio, I encountered numerous familiar faces from Grevena, Korydallos, transfers, detention centers. They now blended seamlessly into the stark penitentiary backdrop. Their histories were familiar to me. They had completed their terms and “settled” their societal debts. Both principal and interest accounted for. No reprieve was granted, not a single day spared. I pondered why they remained incarcerated.

“Revoked licenses, suspended freedoms, ancient rulings forgotten..”

Forgotten souls inhabit the penitentiary system. They are the enduring denizens of confinement with brief respites.

Media hounds in their attire and heavy cosmetics snarl for harsher punishments. They foam at the mouth, decrying the inadequacy of the sentences. “Life means life” they howl.

They are unconcerned by the prevalence of life imprisonments in Greece, issued with alarming ease by the judiciary. They disregard the absurdity of sentencing individuals to 70, 80, 100 years—burdens a convict would require two lifetimes to fulfill, extending even beyond death!

Yet, they boast of their adherence to human rights and European values. At least there is no death penalty here. Yet, indeed, there is…

Though they do not subject the felon to the electric chair’s flames, their lengthy sentences corrode him with the acid of time, forsaken within concrete confines. The enduring aspiration of the convict following the trials’ Golgotha is release and the coveted parole…

With each submission, having met all stipulated conditions, he retrieves his dossier, dons his “finer” garments, and with a substantial dose of hope, encounters his judges.

“Denied… He will not make optimal use of the parole. Denied… The good conduct displayed in prison is merely a show.”

The convict has fulfilled his end, and now the judges’ pronouncement foretells his fate. Frequently, they do not even meet the convict during his appeals. His criminal record suffices, while they proclaim not to judge his past. After all, he has atoned for his past actions.

Prisoners are not without fault, yet if the “remedy” is but extended incarceration, it must be remembered that an overdose of medication poisons the recipient. To address the issue effectively, one must identify its origins. No one is inherently criminal. The penitentiary reflects society’s image. When the convict observes that the state’s ethos comprises corruption, deceit, scandals, he emulates these traits.

Simultaneously, ambiguous court rulings and stricter penalties outlined in the revised criminal code breed resentment and survivalist cunning in the prisoner. Marginalized by society and branded by the stigma of imprisonment, he is compelled to perpetuate his malign persona. The judges’ prophecy of “feigned transformation” metamorphoses into a self-fulfilling prediction.

His freedom is subject to an expiration date.

Outside the prison edifice looms the intangible grand prison… With the dread of authentic captivity, society sequesters itself. Fear, defeatism, apathy constitute its bars… The conviction that change is inconceivable. Individuals persist in meandering within their confined spaces, commuting between home and workplace, placating their incarceration with illusory delights and coveted merchandise. Escalating impoverishment, tangible and spiritual, compels them to lower their gaze even further.

For their liberation, the harshest arbiter is the judicial panel. Their very essence. We alone must elect our manner of existence. Embrace the terms of a contented captive or opt for the requisites of genuine liberation and diginity…

Wishing you all the best…

Christos Tsakalos
Nafplio prison

Source: athens.indymedia

$hile: Gendarmerie wants compañero Francisco Solar to serve his sentence in an exceptional maximum security regime April 22, 2024

Posted on 2024/05/02 by darknights

After the 86-year sentence against the anarchist comrade Francisco Solar was ratified and became final, the gendarmerie made a new maneuver in the comrade’s intrapenitentiary situation. After being held in Maximum Security Module 2 of the Rancagua prison, what would have been appropriate would have been his transfer to High Security Module 1 as a condemned prisoner along with the rest of the anarchist and subversive comrades. But this time seeking to deepen the legal revenge the comrade is taken to a floor in the same maximum security module 2 to serve his sentence in an exceptional regime of punishment and isolation.

Solidarity and complicity with those who attack the powerful!

Let us fight against the life imprisonment and solitary confinement of the anarchist comrade Francisco Solar!

Source: Informativo Anarquista

$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

Italy: Juan Sorroche and Marco Marino – Words of solidarity of anarchist prisoners in AS2 in Terni prison in response to the words of anarchist prisoners, subversives, fighting from Chilean prisons (August 21, 2023)

Posted on 2023/09/01 - 2023/09/01 by darknights

WORDS OF SOLIDARITY FROM ANARCHIST PRISONERS OF AS2 TERNI IN RESPONSE TO THE WORDS OF ANARCHIST PRISONERS, SUBVERSIVES, IN STRUGGLE FROM CHILEAN PRISONS

“Your struggle is ours, every gesture against this world has your imprint… because we are one pack that never forgets its own and its own, regardless, of where we are” – Public letter by Marcelo Villarroel, September 14, 2019

– Internationalist solidarity for the end of the sentence and freedom of comrade Marcelo Villarroel Sepúlveda, arrested in Argentina in 2008 after nearly 16 years in prison. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Pinochet’s military “coup” in Chile, wanted and created by North American imperialism as in Ukraine today, the comrade is sentenced by Pinochet’s legacy military justice. Today this legal aberration is applied, which coexists comfortably with the consensus democracy of the Chilean state, now ruled by the Boric left. Democracy and reactionary fascism are two sides of the same coin, tools of the Imperialist-State.

– Solidarity in the face of the beginning of the trial against comrades Mónica Caballero and Francisco Solar [the judicial hearing, the main trial phase, began on July 18], the vengeance of state rule does not stop against those who go on the offensive by attacking its untouchability and impunity.

– Solidarity with Comrade Juan Aliste Vega, also convicted by Pinochet’s military justice, and Comrade Joaquin Garcia Chancks.

– Solidarity for the downgrading of anarchist Alfredo Cospito from 41 bis. Against 41 bis, out everyone, and for the abolition of life imprisonment.

– Solidarity with comrade Anna Beniamino and Alfredo Cospito convicted in a political trial on the abnormal charge of Article 285 c. p. p., massacre against the security of the state, or commonly called political massacre, this is the first time a massacre without massacre against the internal enemy has been used in this way in Italy. Article 285 c. p. c., massacre against the security of the state, has not been applied to the massacres that have been perpetrated in this country, Piazza Fontana, the Bologna station, Piazza della Loggia, since the 1970s of the so-called strategy of tension, massacres carried out by the Italian state, but, like Pinochet’s “coup”, wanted and created by North American imperialism in its struggle to keep the world under its control. Continue reading “Italy: Juan Sorroche and Marco Marino – Words of solidarity of anarchist prisoners in AS2 in Terni prison in response to the words of anarchist prisoners, subversives, fighting from Chilean prisons (August 21, 2023)” →

Italy: Statements of Alfredo Cospito & Anna Beniamino at the hearing on June 19, 2023 at the Turin Court of Appeals

Posted on 2023/06/25 by darknights

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” →

The new appeal hearing of the Scripta Manent trial has been scheduled (Turin, Italy, June 19, 2023)

Posted on 2023/05/24 by darknights

The new appeal hearing of the Scripta Manent trial has been scheduled (Turin, Italy, June 19, 2023)

Last Friday, May 12nd, the Constitutional Court concluded the drafting of the motivations with which it opened up the possibility of recognising some type of mitigating circumstances for Alfredo Cospito [on April 19th the comrade interrupted his hunger strike], and thus avoiding a life sentence for him.

As a result of this, immediately, this morning [May 15th], a new appeal hearing was set at the court of Turin during which the judges will recalculate the sentences to be inflicted on Anna Beniamino and Alfredo [the sentences for all the other comrades, following the cassation sentence of July 6th, are already definitive]. The hearing is set for next June 19th. We recall that before the referral to the Constitutional Court, the prosecution had asked to sentence Alfredo to life imprisonment without possibility of parole and Anna to 27 years.

Always in solidarity with the imprisoned anarchists
Always at the side of those who fight

[Published in italian at https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2023/05/15/fissata-la-nuova-udienza-dappello-del-processo-scripta-manent-torino-19-giugno-2023/ | English translation published at https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2023/05/17/the-new-appeal-hearing-of-the-scripta-manent-trial-has-been-scheduled-turin-italy-june-19-2023/]

* * *

(IT) Fissata la nuova udienza d’appello del processo Scripta Manent (Torino, 19 giugno 2023)
(EN) The new appeal hearing of the Scripta Manent trial has been scheduled (Turin, Italy, June 19, 2023)

Rimini, Italy: Claim of incendiary attack against two Railway Police cars

Posted on 2023/04/28 - 2023/04/28 by darknights

Claim of incendiary attack against two Railway Police cars (Rimini, April 20, 2023)

RIMINI, INCENDIARY ATTACK AGAINST TWO RAILWAY POLICE CARS

Around 5:00 a.m. on 04/20/23, small incendiary devices were placed so as to set two railroad police cars parked in the Rimini station on fire.

This attack is intended to reiterate that direct action without mediation against the state and capital is possible and necessary.

The choice was made to attack with fire the railway police, a miserable appendage of the state police, assigned to the infamous task of safeguarding security in the railroad sphere. Their role as guardians of the so-called state borders was all the more reason to pay them a visit right on their doorstep. In fact, the constant monitoring that the polfer acts on “alleged” undocumented persons is a serious obstacle for those who want to move freely.

Warm complicit greetings to those who set fire to a police van in La Paz, Bolivia, as well stated in the claim of the attack “may all the efforts of the anarchist struggle live!”

This action is in solidarity with Monica and Francisco, who will soon face trial for several explosive attacks in Santiago, Chile. To comrade Alfredo Cospito, who recently interrupted a 6-month hunger strike against 41 bis and hostile imprisonment. Come on comrade the struggle continues.

To Anna, Juan, Aldo, Lucas, Ivan, Zac and to all anarchist and revolutionary prisoners locked up in prisons around the world.

A thought in solidarity to Nadia Desdemona Lioce, Roberto Morandi and Marco Mezzasalma, for 17 years subjected to the 41 bis regime.

For the total liberation of the existent.

Death to the state,

for The Anarchy

[Received via e-mail & published at https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2023/04/25/rivendicazione-dellattacco-incendiario-contro-due-automobili-della-polizia-ferroviaria-rimini-20-aprile-2023/]

Rome, Italy: About the constitutional court hearing on the convictions for anarchists Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino in the Scripta Manent trial + Anarchist Alfredo Cospito ‘interrupted’ his hunger strike undertaken since Oct. 20 [Corrected]

Posted on 2023/04/20 - 2023/04/28 by darknights

DN Note: We have been informed by comrades in Italy that comrade Alfredo has only interrupted his hunger strike, that the isolation that is 41 bis prevents us knowing what his real motivations are at present.

About the constitutional court hearing on the convictions for anarchists Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino in the Scripta Manent trial (Rome, April 18, 2023)

A hearing was held today in the constitutional court on the case of Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino on charges of political massacre (art. 285 c. p.) within the Scripta Manent trial.

The current Cirielli law (year 2005, Berlusconi government) prevents mitigating factors from outweighing aggravating factors in the case of recidivism. In Alfredo Cospito’s case, in particular, this would have resulted in a certain sentence of hostile life imprisonment despite the fact that the action he and Anna are accused of did not cause any victims.

The court therefore found this provision unconstitutional. More, reading the terse press release that came out of the building, the court seems to have raised constitutionality doubts in general with respect to all those cases in which the fixed penalty is configured solely as life imprisonment.

Recall that Alfredo Cospito has been on hunger strike for almost 6 months precisely against 41 bis and hostile life imprisonment. A struggle for which his comrade is risking his life and during which he may already have suffered permanent neurological damage. A struggle that Alfredo has always reiterated is not just for himself, but for everyone, particularly in solidarity with anarchist, communist and revolutionary prisoners. Today’s decision will have consequences not only for the fate of our comrade, but is a blow, however circumscribed, to the institution of life imprisonment in this country. Continue reading “Rome, Italy: About the constitutional court hearing on the convictions for anarchists Alfredo Cospito and Anna Beniamino in the Scripta Manent trial + Anarchist Alfredo Cospito ‘interrupted’ his hunger strike undertaken since Oct. 20 [Corrected]” →

Italy: Important updates on the prison and health conditions of anarchist Alfredo Cospito (April 5, 2023)

Posted on 2023/04/06 by darknights

Important updates on the detention and health conditions of anarchist Alfredo Cospito

Alfredo has NOT ended his hunger strike!
The reports that have been circulating in the media these days are false and slanderous, as is now the custom in this story: he was offered milk, but Alfredo refused it. If he decides to start feeding again, he will follow the instructions given to him by his trusted doctor long ago.
Ahead of the April 18 hearing, he decided to resume supplements: potassium to stabilize his heart, vitamins to try to curb the neurological problem in his lower limbs, and protein. After the hearing at the Constitutional Court in Rome, which is called to rule on the legal legitimacy in granting or not granting mitigating factors in relation to the conviction for 285 c. p. (“massacre for the purpose of attacking the security of the State,” which only provides for life imprisonment) decreed by the Cassation as part of the Scripta Manent trial, he will decide how to proceed.

He is tired and at times struggles to maintain concentration, but he is lucid and present.
In the prison ward of San Paolo, he is NOT getting mail, not even telegrams.
They are NOT delivering books to him, not even the ones he bought through the Opera prison after authorization.
In the room where he is hospitalized he has only artificial light, it is not possible for him to distinguish day from night.
And finally, the doctors in the prison medicine department at San Paolo, who are following Alfredo, still have a provision not to talk and confront the doctor of trust, but to hand over only medical records. Which in fact prevents him from being cared for in the best way.

LET’S CONTINUE THE STRUGGLE ALONGSIDE ALFREDO!

LET US SEND HIM OUR ANGER AND LOVE, SO THAT HE MAY FEEL THAT THOSE WHO STRUGGLE ARE NEVER ALONE!

[April 5, 2023]

[Received by e-mail and posted at https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2023/04/05/aggiornamenti-importanti-sulle-condizioni-detentive-e-di-salute-dellanarchico-alfredo-cospito-5-aprile-2023/]