Appeal trial for the velvendo case.

Our appeal trial for the Velvedo case was set for April 20th 2016
in the female wing of Koriddalos prisons. The first instance decision was made in October 2014,

when we were convicted for the double expropriation (at the ATE bank and the Post office) that took place in February 2013 in the village of Velvedo. The procedure of the first instance trial was for us a period during which we were once more able to become one with the world of struggle.
We were able to get away, even if just for the few hours each session
lasted, from the asphyxiating world of prison and feel the objective
force of solidarity. The constant presence of comrades in solidarity
at the trial was for us a confirmation that even in a hostile
environment, with the particular weight of the symbolism of authority being bluntly enforced, no comrade is alone.
Therefore, after a procedure that lasted a year, the judges acquitted
us of the charge of integration and participation in the organization
C.C.F. and imposed sentences of 16 years for 5 of us and 11 years to
D. Politis for direct complicity.However, although we are not accused with law 187A of being a “terrorist” organization, the appellate prosecutor Georgios Gerakis decided to refer us to the same judges that will try the appellate courts of the C.C.F.  The cases of Volos in 2011, the armed clash in Pefki as well as the ruling for the arrests of comrades A.Mitrousias, G.Karagiannidis, K.Sakkas and S.Antoniou.

In a nutshell, G. Gerakis has referred five different rulings to a
common appellate trial on April 20th.
For us, the approach behind this choice by the appellate
prosecutor is clear, it is one more attempt from the side of authority
to keep all anarchist fighters in prison for as long as possible,
independently of their sentence.
Practically therefore, what is attempted is an appellate trial, which
because of the volume of the cases will last at least two years
resulting in us completing 1/3 of our original sentence before the end
of our appellate trial.
Essentially, in this way they seek to abolish whatever avail the
appellate trial might have, exploiting of course the elasticity of the
judicial system. A system tailored to the measures of the ruling class
which on one side aims at protecting the political and economic elite
and on the other the exemplary extermination of the people for who the very living conditions lead them to delinquency.

Of course as anarchists we have a clear position towards urban justice
and will always stand hostile against this system and the subservient who serve it. This is why we are making this approach known and once more highlighting that authority attempts to exterminate those who resist and counter-attack the violence it enforces.

We are not making a denunciation, we are simply clarifying that no such approach, no prison and no judge can bring us to our knees and make us forget the reasons that led us to where we are.

Until the destruction of the last prison.

Giannis Mihailidis
Andreas-Dimitris Bourzoukos
Nikos Romanos
Dimitris Politis
Fivos Harisis
Argiris Dalios

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Translated by Act for freedom now!

http://actforfree.nostate.net/?p=22754

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