For Mutual Aid & Solidarity
I write these words during my tenth day of hunger strike, in solidarity with the Chilean comrades once again on hunger strike: you are not alone.
A fraternal embrace to every imprisoned comrade.
For an active and revolutionary solidarity everywhere.
Natascia, imprisoned anarchist
June 26, 2021
[Published & translated by malacoda.noblogs.org].
S. M. C. V., June 17, 2021
– E MENO MALE CHE IN CAMPANIA SE MAGN’ BBUONO! [And it’s a good thing we eat well in Campania!] –
Hi there!
A quick update.
Without wasting a minute, the night after the last “Scintilla” preliminary hearing [June 16], they put me back on a plane to send me back to this shitty place, S. Maria Capua Vetere. I knew that the transfer to the north was only a temporary support, but I sincerely thought that I would hhttps://malacoda.noblogs.org/post/2021/06/19/natascia-nuovamente-trasferita-al-carcere-di-santa-maria-capua-vetere-16-06-2021/ave some more time, just as I naively hoped that they would at least read the various petitions submitted, by me and my lawyer, for reassignment to another prison.
Since the day I was transferred here, three months ago, I have not been able to communicate decently with my lawyer: interviews have been reopened, so no video calls or phone calls at the request of the lawyer, phone calls are only one per month lasting 10 minutes, even for defendants and even for those who are 1,000 kilometres away from the trial site or from home. If he is in the mood, the director of the prison can grant a second extraordinary one during the same month, but obviously, as this is a concession, he is under no obligation to do so, and in any case it is out of the question to exceed two monthly. So 20 minutes per month, in a small stuffy room, and at the appointed time and day, hoping that your lawyer will be in the office that day. Twenty minutes a month, from a month and a half before the beginning of the trial [for the “Scintilla” operation, in Turin], until today, when the trial has substantially come to an end. There are two hearings left, before the closing speech of the prosecutor, two hearings in which there should have been reasoning about spontaneous statements, examination and cross-examination, but it seems that I will have to reason alone. On the face of it, it seems as if everything is being done to prevent a “dignified” defence… or rather, any defence at all… just in case the prosecution’s hyperbolic and morbidly house of cards starts to creak. Then it is much better for them if this possibility, that of defending themselves in court, is reduced to a minimum. I will not dwell here on how videoconferencing fits perfectly with this strategy, much has already been discussed about it (though perhaps not enough). It is known that to think badly you’re very often right. Of the twenty days I spent in Vigevano, fifteen were spent in solitary confinement and one in court, and another two days were spent travelling back and forth… in short, not even this was an opportunity to talk to the lawyer, since solitary confinement is not allowed for visitors. Needless to say, now I am back in quarantine. Continue reading “Italy: A text by anarchist Natascia Savio on hunger strike EN/IT”
From a video call this morning [June 19] with a comrade, Natascia made it known that on June 16, 2021, on her return to Vigevano prison after the preliminary hearing held in Turin for the ‘Scintilla’ trial in which she is a defendant, her temperature was taken and she was immediately put in an isolation cell. When she realised that she was there to be transferred back to S. Maria Capua Vetere prison [in the province of Caserta, southern Italy], she officially declared the start of her hunger strike, throwing the food out of the cell when it was delivered.
Requests for her to be assigned to another prison have been to no avail, given that her right to a defence is infringed, making it impossible for her to properly follow the trials in which she is accused in Genoa (‘Prometeo’) and Turin (‘Scintilla’) and to meet with her lawyer, both in the courtroom during the hearings and in the preparatory phase. It should also be added that the only motion she was able to present in person came from the prison of Vigevano, because from the prison of S. Maria Capua Vetere they never sent it, remaining in all probability to gather dust on a desk of the prison administration.
Natascia is determined to carry on to the end and not to touch food until the situation has changed.
Strong, determined and with her head held high, Natascia has never stopped fighting even when she was locked up. It is up to us outside to fight alongside her with the same strength and determination.
AT NATASCIA’S SIDE, WITH COMPLICITY AND SOLIDARITY!
[Translated by malacoda.noblogs.org].
The night after the second and last preliminary hearing of the Scintilla trial, held in Turin on June 16, anarchist comrade Natascia Savio was woken up again in the middle of the night in her cell inside Vigevano prison and transferred to another prison. This was discovered on the morning of June 17 by the comrade who went to the guardhouse at Vigevano prison for the visit and was told that Natascia was not there because she had been transferred the night before.
As usual, Natascia was not allowed to inform anyone, not even her lawyer. It was presumed that she might have been transferred back to the prison of S. Maria Capua Vetere, but no news about it was given – not even to her lawyer – until this morning [June 18], when the lawyer himself was confirmed that Natascia is indeed there.
At this point it is worth saying a few more words on the question of prison visits.
After the transfer from Piacenza prison to that of S. Maria Capua Vetere in mid-March, the permanent authorisation for visits between Natascia and a comrade issued by the GIP (“Judge for Preliminary Investigations”) became the subject of arbitrary interpretations by prison administration, who authorised only one hour of visit per month (no longer four, therefore) more than two months after the request and just before transferring her temporarily to Vigevano to allow her to attend the preliminary hearings of the Scintilla trial on June 4 and 16 in Turin. In Vigevano prison, the administration followed the same script. Natascia entered the AS3 (“High Security 3”) section between June 12 and 13, after the usual two-week medical isolation. The prison authorised only one hour of visit per month and, above all, decided to fix the visit for Thursday, June 17. When asked if it could be brought forward to Tuesday, June 15 (visits are currently held on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so it was possible to do so), given that this was a temporary transfer until June 16 (although there was an attempt to make it permanent for territorial rapprochement), the prison administration did not want to hear reasons. Continue reading “Italy: Natascia transferred again to Santa Maria Capua Vetere prison”