Michele Fabiani – Dark Nights

Italy: Statement read by Michele Fabiani during the preliminary hearing in the Sibilla proceedings

Posted on 2025/02/02 by darknights

Statement read by Michele Fabiani during the preliminary hearing in the Sibilla proceedings

Legalitarian rhetoric sees trials as a moment in which truths are established, in which a person endowed with willpower must willingly or unwillingly assume responsibility with respect to malicious episodes. To the point that one is in effect acquitted when it is established that the accused is not of sound mind. I have never believed anything like that in my entire life: I think it is an ideological junk typical of bourgeois liberalism to crush necessity, need, material conditions, personal formation, innate impulses within the concepts of guilt and innocence. But today I want to follow, in the economy of this speech, the commonplace. Not least because today marks the likely beginning of a particular trial, a trial against books and newspapers.

What kind of truth does Operation Sibilla conceal? And what responsibility are the protagonists taking on?

For consistency I start with my own, of responsibilities. I have written articles, I have published and disseminated anarchist press, I have published anarchist books. I published, through Monte Bove Editions, the book Which International? by Alfredo Cospito and many others. And I am so proud of having done that, that just last October-in a deliberately provocative gesture toward the previous preliminary hearing-I printed its third edition.

However, there are responsibilities that will also have to be assumed by those who support the prosecution, in a trial in which the body of the crime are books and newspapers. I say this with extreme sincerity, I just do not understand how the state cannot comprehend such elementary evidence: since the world began, he who is censored, gagged, interned, tortured for his ideas gains popularity and fame from the very action of censorship. Everyone knows who Socrates and Giordano Bruno are, I don’t think anyone in here knows the names of Meleto or Cardinal Giulio Antonio Santorio.

Which side of the story do you sit on?

When it comes to accountability there is one that is greater than all and frankly crushes jurisprudential technicalities. When it comes to truth, I cannot be silent about the most shameful truth of this trial. As we discuss criminal procedure there is an elephant in the room. Right in here.

I just cannot keep quiet about the scandal that there is a co-defendant of mine, a comrade of mine, locked up in 41 bis and connected by video conference. When we talk about truth, no one can deny that this investigation played a central role in the decision to lock Alfredo Cospito up in 41 bis. The minister of justice spoke about it in parliament, chief prosecutor Cantone himself spoke about it during a hearing.

This is a scandal not only because 41 bis is an international disgrace, a torture prison regime to which no one should be subjected. Above all, it is a scandal because we anarchists say things clearly. In this book, Which International?, you will not find a cabal of cryptic messages. The writings of anarchists are not pizzas! Nor will you find orders, because anarchists have no leaders and take orders from no one. Continue reading “Italy: Statement read by Michele Fabiani during the preliminary hearing in the Sibilla proceedings” →

Perugia, Italy: Update on the review hearing for re-examination of the precautionary measures in ”operation Sibilla” and statements of some of the comrades under investigation

Posted on 2023/03/16 - 2023/03/16 by darknights

Source: La Nemesi
Via & translated to English by Act for freedom now!

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Update on the review hearing for re-examination of the precautionary measures in operation Sibilla and statements of some of the comrades under investigation (Perugia, 14th March 2023)

The hearing for re-examination of the precautionary measures for anarchists in operation Sibilla of 11th November 2021 took place on March 14th in the bunker courtroom inside the prison of Capanne in Perugia. It concerned the comrades for whom measures were ordered on charges of incitement to commit a crime (414 criminal code), aggravated by the aim of terrorism, in connection with the drafting, publication and distribution of the first six issues of the anarchist newspaper “Vetriolo” and other articles and interventions.

Among the comrades under investigation are Alfredo Cospito, on hunger strike for over 140 days, and Gianluca, currently under house arrest for a year now for the investigation Diamante.
This second re-examination resulted from the Court of Cassation’s ruling last June granting the prosecutor Manuela Comodi’s request, annulling the previous order of the review court which had revoked the precautionary measures in December 2021.

Alfredo Cospito participated in the hearing by video link from the Milan prison of Opera and three comrades under investigation were present in the courtroom in the Peurugia prison of Capanne. The hearing took place behind closed doors, while there were around 40 comrades in solidarity outside. The three comrades under investigation who attended the hearing in the bunker courtroom spoke (two of them with written statements) and each greeted Alfredo warmly. Alfredo made a long statement, in which he was very lucid and was loaded with his usual sarcasm (‘I prefer comedy to melodrama’).’I want to start with the words of my instigator,’ he began, quoting a stance of the current minister of justice Nordio going back to 2019 concerning 41 bis. The comrade then reiterated the meaning and perspective of the hunger strike against the detention regime, which he called a ‘medieval muzzle’ and a ‘metastasis that will spread to political dissent’. Alfredo said he does not accept this non-life and will go on until the end. “For anarchists, who have no organisation, the given word is everything.” That is why he will keep his word, going on to the bitter end. “I will leave with dignity. I hope that those who love me understand that.” The comrade wished to point out that, in the situation in which he is imprisoned, “the only remnants of light I see are the acts of my anarchist brothers and sisters around the world”, “Thank you anarchists. I love you”. Finally, he concluded: “Abolition of the 41 bis regime. Abolition of life imprisonment without parole. Solidarity with all anarchist, communist and revolutionary prisoners in the world”.

Unfortunately, due to the peculiarities of 41 bis, designed specifically to gag prisoners, Alfredo’s full statement is not currently available. We will release it as soon as possible.

After a ridiculous intervention by prosecutor Manuela Comodi who swore that the ‘Perugia public prosecutor’s office is totally uninvolved in the 41 bis measure’, in open contradiction with the words of her boss Cantone (also present in court today), the hearing was closed and the court reserved its decision on the precautionary measures against the investigated comrades.

The decision to move the venue of the hearing to the bunker courtroom of Capanne prison was an obvious attempt to remove the initiative in solidarity with Alfredo away from the city centre. This aim was not achieved because after the hearing the solidarity presence reconvened at the canteen of the University of Perugia, where a banner was unfurled, leaflets were distributed and megaphone interventions were held for over an hour.

Awaiting the release of Alfredo Cospito’s text, we attach below the statements of two comrades under investigation.
Continue reading “Perugia, Italy: Update on the review hearing for re-examination of the precautionary measures in ”operation Sibilla” and statements of some of the comrades under investigation” →

Italy: The second edition of the book ” What International?” by Alfredo Cospito and many others is now available

Posted on 2022/12/02 by darknights

The second edition of the book ” What International?” by Alfredo Cospito and many others is now available

The second edition of What International? is finally available, which we are publishing-during the hunger strike undertaken by Alfredo Cospito starting Oct. 20-as a gesture of solidarity with his comrade and of insubordination against the state, which with the repressive Sibilla operation of Nov. 11, 2021, attempted to get the book out of circulation and which, starting in May 2022, with Alfredo’s transfer to 41 bis, is deluding itself into thinking it will permanently shut his mouth. We will not allow them to do that!

Inside the book:

– Preface by Alfredo Cospito
– Introduction to the second edition by Michele Fabiani and Francesco Rota
– Introduction to the first edition by Anarchist editors of “Vetriolo”
– What International? Interview and dialogue with Alfredo Cospito from Ferrara prison
– From the Belly of the Leviathan. Statement at the beginning of the trial for the action against Adinolfi in Genoa
– Who we are. Open letter to the anarchist and anti-authoritarian movement.
– Four years–December 2006. Document-meeting of the Informal Anarchist Federation four years after its inception.
– Chronology of actions, 1999-2022
– Editorial note

Alfredo Cospito and many others
What international?
Monte Bove Editions (Series: Clandestine Paperbacks – 3).
Second edition, November 2022, 205 pages.

One copy: 5.00 euros. For distribution, to requests for at least five copies: 3.00 euros per copy. Postage not included.

For requests for copies please contact Monte Bove Editions: edizionimontebove@riseup.net Continue reading “Italy: The second edition of the book ” What International?” by Alfredo Cospito and many others is now available” →

Italy: Sibilla investigation and 41 bis to anarchist Alfredo Cospito – stance taken by some suspects

Posted on 2022/11/25 by darknights

The motivations of the Supreme Court inherent in the pre-trial detention of the Sibilla operation came out in these days. We briefly recall the facts. In September 2021, following years of investigations conducted by the commands of the Special Operational Grouping of the Carabinieri in Milan and Perugia, the arrest of seven comrades and a companion was requested by the Perugia prosecutor’s office. This order was partly rejected and downgraded by the judge for preliminary investigations. Thus, on Nov. 11, dozens of searches were carried out by the ROS of the Carabinieri, the Sibilla investigation concerning some 15 anarchists and anarchists was notified, and six precautionary measures were imposed in connection with the charge of incitement to commit a crime with the aggravating factor of the purpose of terrorism: a warrant of arrest in prison for Alfredo Cospito (at the time already imprisoned in the Terni jail); house arrest with all restrictions for an anarchist from Spoleto; finally, the obligation to stay in the municipality of residence jointly with the obligation to sign three days a week for four comrades. On the same day of the operation two websites, roundrobin.info and malacoda.noblogs.org, were also blacked out. During the search, all found copies of the anarchist newspaper “Vetriolo” and the books What International? and My Dear Master Tomorrow I’ll Shoot You published by Monte Bove Editions were seized.

Only five weeks later, the Perugia review court revoked the arrest order, essentially trashing the investigation. Against this ruling prosecutor Manuela Comodi appealed in Cassation, obtaining, against the same opinion of the Attorney General’s Office, the reinstatement of the investigation. With some delay, the reasons for this decision were received. Unfortunately, the dabbling in technicalities is this time necessary for the understanding of the acrobatic leaps with which the Italian judiciary is trying to hold up Operation Sibilla and with it probably the infamous decision to lock up our comrade Alfredo Cospito in 41bis. In fact, the Supreme Court found that there was a passage in the sentence of the Perugia freedom court in which the prosecution’s position was not sufficiently argued. This passage coincidentally concerns precisely an article by Alfredo in “Vetriolo,” later taken up in What International? Therefore, the judgment by which we were exonerated is annulled and a new review is ordered to more fully address the point at issue. This is therefore an open ruling that does not rule out a new “acquittal,” but merely calls for aspects that it deems controversial to be more clearly delineated.

We are taking the floor because we want to expose the political logic behind this matter. This investigation plays its part in the 41bis order against our comrade. By claiming that Alfredo “instigated” from prison to commit revolutionary actions, it constitutes a good reason to argue the need to prevent him from any communication with the outside world. We take it upon ourselves to firmly denounce what we believe happened. It is clear that the Supreme Court received appropriate solicitations that Operation Sibilla be kept alive, albeit in intensive care. A decision made over and above the Attorney General’s own requests, the delay in the motivations, the captiousness of them, all of this speaks to us of the need to keep standing, while grasping at straws, a specific charge of incitement against Alfredo.

On December 1, a hearing will be held to confirm or not confirm the application of 41bis against our comrade for the next four years. On that day, the state executioners will be able to appear in court waving this charge as well. Let it be clear, publicly, how shaky it actually is (postponement for lack of motivation of the annulment ruling on a single specific article published in an anarchist newspaper), but that it can become, along with others, one more reason to keep Alfredo in the regime of annihilation and thus to sentence him to death.

Alfredo, in fact, has waged a very tough struggle that leaves no room for judicial acrobatics. Faced with the prospect of spending a lifetime in 41bis, he preferred, with his usual consistency and determination, to put his life on the line in an all-out hunger strike. On the one hand, your byzantinisms with which you arrange investigations and jail, on the other, the proud and unequivocal linearity of anarchism. Just as the comrades and comrade who joined the hunger strike are demonstrating the deepest sense of the word solidarity. In our own small way, we too put our faces to it and promise that we will not leave in silence what you are doing.

Adriano, Federica, Francesco, Matteo, Michele, Paolo, Sara

Source: La Nemesi

Italy: An update and some considerations on Operation Sibilla and the 41 bis against anarchist Alfredo Cospito

Posted on 2022/06/25 - 2022/07/24 by darknights

A hearing on the precautionary measures ordered for the repressive Sibilla operation was held at the Court of Cassation in Rome on June 22. The hearing stemmed from an appeal by prosecutor Manuela Comodi against the order of the Perugia review court, which on Dec. 16 had resulted in the annulment of the precautionary measures taken on Nov. 11 in the repressive operation. The Court of Cassation, in spite of the opinion of the Attorney General’s Office (which had called for the rejection of the Perugia prosecutor’s appeal), granted PM Comodi’s request, annulling the order of the review court and ordering a new hearing. The precautionary measures are not effective, and a new review hearing will be ordered for the coming months at the Perugia court.

We would like to take the opportunity of this update to dwell on the reasons that led to the crackdown, adding some of our own considerations derived especially from the recent order to transfer Comrade Alfredo Cospito to a 41 bis detention regime.

In September 2021, following years of investigations conducted by the commands of the Special Operational Grouping of the Carabinieri in Milan and Perugia, eight prison arrests for as many anarchist comrades were requested by the Perugia prosecutor’s office. This order was partly rejected and downgraded by the judge for preliminary investigations. At the same time as this request for arrest, a three-month censure order on correspondence was ordered for comrade Alfredo Cospito, which was subsequently renewed several times.

Thus, on Nov. 11, dozens of searches were carried out by the ROS of the Carabinieri, the Sibilla investigation concerning some 15 comrades was notified, and six precautionary measures were imposed in connection with the charge of incitement to commit a crime with the aggravating factor of the purpose of terrorism: an arrest warrant in prison for Alfredo Cospito (at the time already imprisoned in the Terni jail); the arrest of comrade Michele Fabiani, who was placed under house arrest with all restrictions; and finally, the obligation to stay in the municipality of residence jointly with the obligation to sign three days a week for four comrades. On the very day of the operation, two websites (roundrobin.info and malacoda.noblogs.org) were also blacked out, making their online addresses untraceable, and at present they are still unreachable on Italian territory through conventional browsers (due to technical limitations, the repressive forces were able to order the blackout only in Italy, since it was not possible to completely eliminate the websites in question). As mentioned earlier, after a little over a month, the precautionary measures were all cancelled by the review court. Continue reading “Italy: An update and some considerations on Operation Sibilla and the 41 bis against anarchist Alfredo Cospito” →

Italy: Annulment of the measures of Operation Sibilla + communication by Alfredo Cospito

Posted on 2021/12/20 by darknights

We learn with joy of the cancellation of all precautionary measures against the anarchists and anarchists affected by “Operation Sibilla. Following the statement of the comrades from Spoleto and a text by Alfredo Cospito, escaped the meshes of prison censorship:

Operation Sibilla: all precautionary measures cancelled

Today the news arrived that all the precautionary measures for the Sibilla repressive operation of November 11, directed in particular against the anarchist newspaper “Vetriolo”, were annulled by the court of re-examination which was held on December 14. Therefore, the obligations to sign and stay for three comrades, the house arrest for Michele Fabiani and the precautionary detention in prison for Alfredo Cospito, who remains imprisoned for the sentence to 20 years in the process Scripta Manent, have been cancelled.

The motivations will be known within 45 days. Without going into the merits of the courts’ paperwork, it seems that the wording “annulment” represents the maximum possible denial on a technical level of the accusatory hypotheses. In any case, whatever would have been the response of the judges, remains our firm perseverance in revolutionary anarchist propaganda, solidarity with the imprisoned comrades and the defense of anarchist publications. The repression does not surprise us: we knew that the recent convictions in the appeal process of Scripta Manent against the last edition of “Anarchist Black Cross” would be an infamous precedent.

We reiterate our solidarity with Alfredo, who this very investigation aimed to isolate and silence. A hug to Anna, Juan, Beppe, David and all the prisoners who do not lower their heads.

See you Monday, December 20 from 18:00 at Circolaccio Anarchico in Viale della repubblica 1 / A in Spoleto to discuss the repressive operation and the reasons for our struggle.

Anarchists in Spoleto
December 16th, 2021
Continue reading “Italy: Annulment of the measures of Operation Sibilla + communication by Alfredo Cospito” →

The reaction in Italy: Message in the barrel about operation Sibilla and much more by Anarchist Michele Fabiani

Posted on 2021/12/10 by darknights

Source: fuoridallariserva Via & Translated by Act for freedom now!

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Message in the barrel about operation Sibilla and much more

The passion for destruction is also a creative passion

— M. Bakunin, The Reaction in Germany

The story goes that one day Alexander the Great went to the barrel in which Diogenes of Sinope lived. Diogenes was the only philosopher who had not gone to pay homage to the great king. So Alexander went to him. Alexander asked him: “Tell me what I can do for you”. And Diogenes answered: “Yes, move away, stand out of my light.”.

Reflecting on conditions of incommunicability, autonomy and refractoriness towards power is far more complicated today than it was in the 4th century BC.

Today power does not move, there is no longer a barrel inside which the shadow of the State does not reach. The only possible relationship with this global organism is violence. One hears all too often, like a plaint of bigots at evensong, that revolutionary violence is out of date. It is said that “times have changed” when, if anything, it is the possibility of escape that has changed.

The last two years have been a sad confirmation of this old story. A new era was heralded in with the massacre in the Italian prisons, the people locked in their homes while production continued to go ahead, the attacks and killings during the transport strikes, the countless repressive manoeuvres against anarchists, and finally through the green pass, the final (?) destination of the new society of control. Continue reading “The reaction in Italy: Message in the barrel about operation Sibilla and much more by Anarchist Michele Fabiani” →

Italy: One might ask why we should not all want this…

Posted on 2021/12/03 - 2021/12/03 by darknights

On November 11, numerous searches were carried out in various Italian cities and six comrades were notified of precautionary measures: in prison for Alfredo Cospito, under house arrest for Michele Fabiani, an obligation to stay in the municipality of residence and three signatures per week at the local barracks for four other comrades. In this period in which the State takes an increasingly authoritarian path for the management of continuous emergencies that it has contributed to generate, could not miss the umpteenth operation against those who oppose the State and this huge accumulation of limitations, prohibitions, blackmail and punishments.

The accusation is that of having, in various ways, participated in the publication of ‘Vetriolo’, anarchist paper. It is not the first time that the printed paper alone becomes a clue and evidence to trigger waves of searches and arrests. “They wanted to attack the State”, thunder the national and local media. One might ask why we should not all want this, especially at a time when the state with one hand is making strong to the sound of impositions and repression in the streets, and with the other increases the cost of living and launches the release of redundancies.

Complete solidarity with the comrades searched and investigated. Freedom for Michele and Alfredo!

Comrades of the province of Varese

Source: Malacoda

Saint-Mandé (Val-de-Marne), France : A car of the municipal police on fire

Posted on 2021/11/21 - 2021/11/21 by darknights

Sunday evening we were walking towards Saint-Mandé and we came across a silk-screened car of the municipal police of Kremlin-Bicêtre. Parked there, in a street apart (rue de l’amiral Courbet), quiet. The only thing missing was the red carpet. Neither one nor two, we went to look for firelighters, and shortly after the keufmobile already started to burn!

There are many reasons to attack a police force. They are so obvious that one might think that these lines are unnecessary. There is not a week that goes by without cops getting stoned in a poor neighborhood. Besides, everyone hates the police!

But we are not “everybody”. Among this “everybody” there are people who ask for truth and justice (as if the role of the police in this world was not obvious and as if we could get justice from the state). There are people who want a more democratic police force or who hate it because it prevents them from doing their business or driving fast.

On our side we want the end of all authority, of the state and of capitalist exploitation. We are not mere factors of disorder among others. Besides, this famous disorder is only a means perhaps (and to consider it too much as a necessary presupposition of freedom we arrive at a kind of historical determinism, as if the present world produced all by itself the contradictions which should lead to its overcoming…), but we think that the individual will is much more important to tend towards freedom.

This is why we continue to say loud and clear long live anarchy!

We take this opportunity to send a hug of solidarity to the companions recently repressed in Italy.

Freedom for Alfredo and Michele! (without forgetting Anna and Juan)

Freedom for all!

some individuals

Source: Attaque

Italy: Does the Sibilla forecast the storm? EN/IT/FR/ES

Posted on 2021/11/16 - 2021/11/29 by darknights

At the dawn of November 11, there were numerous searches in different Italian cities and 6 comrades were notified of judicial surveillance orders: in prison for Alfredo, with house arrests for Michele, with the prohibition to leave the municipality of residence and the obligation to report to the cops three times a week for four other comrades.
The comrades are charged with the crime provided for by article 270 bis (association with the purpose of terrorism and subversion of the democratic order), because of the design, printing and diffusion, also by digital and computer means, of the anarchist newspaper Vetriolo, as well as for tags on walls with contents considered as outrage and incitement, in addition to a case of damage of a property belonging to others. In addition, they are charged under art. 414 (provocation to crimes and misdemeanors), for the drafting and dissemination of communiqués with content inciting the commission of crimes against the personality of the State, with the aim of terrorism and subversion of the democratic order.

In addition to this, two counter-information websites are closed: roundrobin.info and malacoda.noblogs.org [by the way the state censorship did not work: both sites are still accessible; NdAtt.], because considered an aggravating circumstance of the crime of provocation to crimes and misdemeanors (through a digital instrument).

The investigation begins in 2017, in Milan, at the beginning of the experience of the newspaper, and then it is transferred in the hands of the Prosecutor’s Office of Perugia, until today; it reviews the content of the anarchist propaganda articles, which are declared as dangerous for their communicative effectiveness and because of the diffusion of the radical idea.

This is not an attack on the freedom of press and thought. The State is doing its job of controlling and managing the internal enemy, in order to maintain its authority, and publications that resolutely affirm contents of a certain type, undermining its interests, are clearly targeted, as has always happened throughout history. In the current democratic and technocratic regime, characterized by an authoritarian turn, what is “allowed” is confined within the limits of maintaining economic profits and capitalist production and consumption. As is evident in the street demonstrations that these days express their opposition to political-sanitary impositions, the limit of what is licit is defined by the institutions and the limit of the freedom to protest is increasingly reduced. Those who publicly assume to publish a newspaper like Vetriolo, giving support and space of expression to the anarchist and revolutionary prisoners, are aware that the repression will be set in motion, with investigations accompanied by sensational headlines in the media. But this is not the reason why we will complain about the lack of democratic freedoms of expression and press, which in fact have never existed, let alone today. Continue reading “Italy: Does the Sibilla forecast the storm? EN/IT/FR/ES” →