From inform-azione.info Translated by act for freedom now
Five months after Francesco, Graziano and Lucio were arrested, prosecutors from Turin led by Federica Bompieri have decided to charge the three comrades with terrorism, a charge already applied to the other NO TAV prisoners jailed following the attack on a TAV yard on 13th May 2013.
A few days before the sentence of the first grade trial of Chiara, Claudio, Mattia and Niccolò is due to be pronounced, notification of the terrorism charge against Francesco, Graziano and Lucio is likely to worsen the prison condition of the four comrades, permitting their transfer to High Security (AS2) units; at the same time it confirms the prosecutors’ will to insist on the repressive and media topic of terrorism.
From Macerie:
Exactly a year since Chiara, Claudio, Mattia and Niccolò were arrested, just a few days before their sentences are due to be pronounced, charges of terrorism have also been added to those against Lucio, Francesco and Graziano. Imprisoned since July, the three comrades had ‘only’ been accused of possession and transport of military weapons, arson and other minor offences, to which articles 280 e 280bis – attack with aims of terrorism – were added this morning. This unpleasant surprise was accompanied by searches of the cells and the seizing of various materials as well as the suspension of visits. A family member and a friend who had been granted authorization to visit were in fact sent away this morning, and warned that they’d have to ask for authorization again. We still don’t know whether visits are to be suspended for a considerable length of time, as happened to the first four comrades, or for a short period. At the moment we can’t say when and where the three comrades will be transferred, as the charge of terrorism implies detention under a High Surveillance regime.
Apart from what’s going on inside courtrooms and prisons, for the past three days several hundred people have been marching through the streets of Val Susa, blocking them and demanding the liberation of the seven imprisoned comrades. On Sunday evening a huge noisy demo went through Susa, particularly focusing on the Napoleon hotel, where the sleep of the forces of order hosted there was disturbed with firecrackers and continuous loud beating. Next day, December 8, the anniversary of the clashes in Venaus in 2005, two groups of demonstrators tried to reach the area of the yard from two different spots.
The group gathered in Giaglione managed to avoid police patrols by taking footpaths; the demonstrators got to the yard fences and started beating noisily. The others, gathered at the Centrale di Chiomonte, came face to face with police lined up on the bridge opposite the gate of the Centrale; the demonstrators decided to march along highway 24, which they blocked for several hours. Others headed to the nearby railway station, where they blocked the tracks and delayed the passage of a high speed train. At the end of the afternoon a considerable group of demonstrators went back to the Centrale, where they started beating noisily, which wasn’t appreciated by the forces of order who responded with hydrants and teargas.
The day ended that way and we are set to see each other again on 17th December, the day fixed for sentencing: 9am at the Bunker Courtroom to greet Chiara, Claudio, Mattia and Niccolò, and 5:30pm at the market square in Bussoleno to decide on the next steps following the verdict of the Court of the Assizes.
Here is an open letter to Chiara, Claudio, Mattia and Niccolò, distributed in these days in Val Susa, in reply to the comrades’ declarations to the court.
OPEN LETTER TO CHIARA, NICO, MATTIA AND CLAUDIO
Dear comrades,We listened to, then read, the declarations you made on 24th September in the bunker courtroom of la Vallette prison. How our hearts thumped at the rhythm and sound of your voices! At last, after months of separation, solid bars and deaf walls. But in no way have those months dimmed your lucidity and determination, as shown by your letters from prison. An abyss of ethics and sensitivity separates you from the men who fill courts, police stations, and offices to decide what to do with other people’s lives. Ours and everyone else’s.We heard your words as though they were addressed to us. And so we decided to answer you publicly. First of all, we felt proud, yet again, to have you as comrades. Your words, besides being proud, sounded right, both in the sense of being ethically correct and in tune.
Through them gestures, episodes and slogans of the Valley have become a mass of serene obstinacy, an explosive mixture that thrusts you out of those hideous walls. A comrade who’s no longer there, dry throats as we go up a slope, holes made by bulldozers filled by hands, a partisan song revisited… unusual presence in a declaration made in front of the enemy… much persuasiveness and very little rhetoric. And then, without mincing our words, with the simplicity that joins us at the summit of our desires, the real culprit emerged: sabotage. Without any fuss, as one who knows they are in good company. And your sabotage became the companion of other sabots thrown at the machinery of the TAV (and not only) in Val Susa (and not only).
