From Tuesday 10/3/2015 I have been arrested and imprisoned in Korydallos prison.
My new arrest is because of the “civil war between anarchists” in Thessaloniki, which is the innner-movement conflicts that took place in the city in 2012. Days before the beginning of the trial I made my intention on the adjournment clear since, on the one hand, I already have another trial in progress about the “Phoenix” Project, in Korydallos prison and,on the other hand, my lawyer Fragkiskos Ragkousis was having, in the meantime, important trials in progress and couldn’t attend (mine). So, we asked for an adjournment from the headquarters of the court. What happened was, on the one hand, the headquarters to regularly go on with the procedure and, on the other hand, the accused ones to validate the trial through their presence. That is to say that the trial was regularly carried on with undercover cops and judges mentioning me all the time with no counterargument. So, this was when I published an open letter in which I clear things up and illustrate that anyone of my co-defendants who sanctions the trial through his presence, hands me over to the appetites of the counter-terrorism agency and the judges.
However, only one of the co-defendants left the process and the trial ends (within 3-4 days), with me having been sentenced to seven years in prison and 5,000 euros as an amercement.
Rationally one may wonder why all the defendants did not ask for an adjournment of this trial. The answer I was given from the co-defendants for the “squats of Thessaloniki”[1] case was that the trial should be over in order for the “fighter” S.Stratoulis to take a leave since prison, under the guise of lis pendens, deprives him of his leaves. Of course, this is not legally applicable as the prison leaves are not cut due to a misdemeanor.
From the participants’ of the Anarchist Squat Nadir point of view, the answer was that they wanted to get through with the trial…
Criticizing all these things, one can briefly see the degradation of the majority of the “milieu” in Thessaloniki. On the one side,the “squats of Thessaloniki” compelled that the trial will be continued, considering that their “own man”, charged with misdemeanors, is priority over me who was facing the most serious accusations and I was mostly targeted during the trial (as well as the general targeting of mine by the counter-terrorist agency).
On the other side, you watch some people that participated in Nadir squat having become a-political subjects, spending their time in a safevelvet vagrancy, totally ignoring their former comrade.
Of course, responsible are the “close to the movements” lawyers of this trial that one would expect that they’d not be the recipients of orders from their clients but to have the conscience not to proceed to a trial without the presence of the defendant.
The subject that arises now is whether all these people have moral values. Arises, in addition,the question of whether the milieu possesses anarchist ethics and consciousness. And of course, how is it possible that people who are or used to be part of the antiauthoritarian/anarchist milieu can express their wrath inside a court room. I want to be clear. I have no intention of paying the 5.000 euros of the amercement. And I don’t allow any of my friends and comrades to pay for me. The money will be given by the 39 defendants that validated this trial.
Since today, Saturday 14/03/2015, I’ve started a hunger strike requesting my immediate and by every means release.
P.S. As this is a strictly internal issue, I don’t want my hunger strike to be correlated with the rest of the hunger strikes taking place in Greece at the moment.
FURY AND CONSCIENCE
Spyros Mandylas, Saturday 14/03/2015
[1] He refers to the violent conflicts between anarchist squats (of different tensions) that took place in 2012 in Thessaloniki, during which 41 people were prosecuted with felonies and midemeanors.
https://interarma.info/2015/03/14/ellada-keimeno-spyrou-mandila-gia-nea-sillipsi-kai-apergia-peinas/?lang=en