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REPRESSION AT THE F15 ANTI-WAR DEMO IN ATHENS -24 ARRESTED -13 WITH CHARGES -ONE PERSON IMPRISONED |
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Parts of a letter written by one of the arrested (published in athens.indymedia.org, Feb.17) A little after four o'clock on Saturday, while the rally was dynamically taking place, me and a friend of mine, having left from the demonstration, we were arrested by the assholes of police security (plainchothes cops) and taken to Police Headquarters for identification control. While we were waiting for the cops' cars that would take us there, two more people are arrested. So, the company of two, becomes a company of four arrested. The procedure is more or less known to everyone. They bring us to police hq, take us at the 6th floor (security department) as the "new terrorists" and then the "party" of the cops begins on our expense. None of us had the time to say even a word. Just like that, for welcome, we receive a kick and after they made us sit down on our knees, like slaves, and demanded that we look only at the floor (so that we wouldn't see the faces of the assholes who were hitting us). They started their usual genltly talks... swearing at us, humiliating comments, threats, complex statetements expressing the damage of their brains etc... In the place we were kept the carried on bringing more people "welcoming" them with the above mentioned manner, forming this way a group of persons. They put us the one next to the other, in a dark long hall, where for three hours had us with our heads against the wall, while the cops who were patrolling behind us were punching us, and of couse they were continuing with their verbal pshychologic war. For nine of the people taken to police it was a police-control. For the other 13, the police-control became, in a "magic" way, an arrest, with charges that were based on testimonies-frame ups of the cops who had arrested each one of us (...) For one more time, the abolition of the rights of people in custody, the cops' arbitrary acts, abuse of their authority, their excessive complexes and their substance as pigs were confirmed, to all of us who lived what we lived during the time we stayed in Police hq., and to all those who continued to be in the streets with the demonstration. Among the things mentioned about the pshychological and physical tortures we suffered inside the police security department, it would be good to add that cops put their fingers in some kids' arses, they slapped in the face the two girls who were arrested (as a show of how macho they are), and the "prive" beating of tow kids who were isolated in a separate room. Deeds and acts of the cops that turn us back to the persecution of the left in the period of the military junta. Fascist expressions of the complexes of pig existances.... STRENGTH FOR THE KIDS STILL INSIDE |
24 people were arrested in Athens during the F15 anti-war demonstration and in surrounding streets after it has finished, while the police was throwing loads of tear-gas in front of the US embassy and some roadblocks before, so that part of the -150.000 people- demonstration never get there. In police headquarters, the 24 arrested, high-school students among them, were physically and psychologically tortured and sexually harassed by riot police squads who had them on their knees for more than three hours, punching them with globs and kicking them. Despite that, all, apart from a 17year-old, refused to give any testimony to the police. Eleven of the arrested were released without charges later on. The other 13 persons, all accused for a dozen of misdemeanours (like causing damages, resisting arrest, threatening authorities etc) and 2 of them for three felonies (possession and use of explosives + arson) were first taken to court on Sunday, with the signs of torture evident on their faces. There, the police forces intimidated their friends, comrades and relatives and didn't let anyone go close to the arrested. They took them back to Police h.q. for another night. The only thing there is against them are cops' "testimonies" and "identifications". These "testimonies" are constructed in a way that burden those arrested for all the minor violent incidents that happened in three different points of the demo: In the beginning, where there were some molotov and stones thrown against riot police + a bank with smashed windows, in the middle, near the British Embassy where there was an attempt to set a riot police van on fire with molotovs, and in the end, outside the US embassy, where stones and sticks were thrown against riot police who used massively tear-gas. None of the persons was arrested in the time and place of these incidents, but only afterwards ...some of them even earlier(!) from the time of the incidents they're accused of. Others were arrested during strong police attacks at the demo with tear-gas near the US embassy... On Monday, February 18, the 13 arrested were examined by a public prosecutor. He decided to set free 10 of them who had only charges for misdemeanours. They are still going to have a trial. Until then, five of them will have to present themselves in a police station twice a month. The other three were taken back to police hq. On Tuesday, F19, Two of the persons still in custody were taken to court. One of them, 24 years-old Thanos Michalakelis, facing felony charges for the incidents in the beginning of the demo, even if he was arrested in a metro station and with no evident against him, will go to prison, according to the decision of the public prosecutor. In reality, the only reason for his imprisonment is that he has been arrested in the past, when he was 17, in the Polytechnic revolt of 1995 along with 504 other people who were in solidarity with a prisoner's revolt in Koridallos and with anarchist prisoners on hunger strike. The other person, Sofia, was released until trial, after she had to pay a bail. People who were outside in solidarity were again facing intimidating attitude and threats from riot police, for third day in the court. It was the same squad that was torturing the arrested inside police headquarters on Saturday. Thanos, was taken back to police car, hand-cuffed and surrounded by strong police force, while comrades chanted the slogan THE PASSION FOR FREEDOM IS STRONGER THAN ALL PRISONS Tomorrow, Wednesday F20, the last person still in police custody, 20 years-old Kostas P., will pass in front of public prosecutor who will decide if he will be imprisoned or not, as he is facing felonies. He was arrested outside a hospital and now charged, according to a cop "identification", with attempt to cause fire to the riot police van, close to British embassy. His hand is injured and hasn't received any medical treatment yet. The 13 were not only tortured but also facing charges based on the "testimonies" of the same cops who tortured them, so that the police has an alliby for its violence against the demonstrators and in order to terrorize and disencourage people from continuing to struggle. The torture of the arrested and the imprisonment of Thanos Michalakelis aims at sending a message of terror to all those who resist state terrorism and capitalism brutality. More specificaly, it is the message of "zero tolerance" for the next anti-war demonstrations, which will probably happen after the war "starts", and for the next demonstrations that will take place soon against the various summits organized by the greek presidency of the E.U. FREE THANOS MICHALAKELIS! SOLIDARITY WITH ALL THE PEOPLE ARRESTED IN THE ANTI-WAR DEMONSTRATIONS! WE ARE NOT GOING TO LET ANYONE HOSTAGE OF THE STATE! DOWN WITH STATE TERRORISM! |
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