Monthly Archives: June 2017

[Thessaloniki] Prozess gegen Hurriya Besetzer*innen erneut verschoben

Am vergangenen Donnerstag, den 22.06.17, fand in Thessaloniki ein weiterer Prozesstag gegen die über 50 angeklagten Besetzer*innen des Hurriya statt. Der Prozess wurde ein weiteres Mal verschoben, diesmal auf den 8.11.2017.

[Röszke11] Trial of Ahmed H. To Be Retried!

Trial of Ahmed H. of Röszke 11 To Be Retried!!!

Ahmed H’s case will be retried, but he remains in prison. Ahmed is one of the Röszke 11 and is in prison for 2 years now.

(Originally published by Migszol on 16.6.2017)

Yesterday afternoon, the appeal court of Ahmad H. was held in Szeged (Hungary) .

The prosecutor started the session by refusing even the necessity of having an appeal court, since in his opinion the right to a fair trial was respected in the first instance court. He added that there is no need of hearing new evidence or witnesses and asked to exclude some of the police reports to be considered. He wanted to classify Ahmed not as a person holding a permit to free movement, but as a third country national. He finally concluded that the second instance court should uphold the decision of the first instance court.

The prosecutor’s argument against Ahmed is mainly that he should have known that the border was closed and that Hungary was only accessible through the transit zone. Ahmed later responded to this charge that he and his family did not know anything about the border being closed. At one point, Ahmed interrupted by asking to loosen the chains on his legs, because they were too tight. The judge used the situation to have a break.

After the break, the hearing of Ahmed continued, with a twist however, as the prosecutor repeated the first instance prosecution and demanded an even higher punishment – to increase his prison sentence from 10 to 17 and a half years.

Ahmed’s lawyer Bárándy criticized the treatment of the evidence in the first court and the first verdict as contradictory and insufficient. No evidence had proved that Ahmed was leading the crowd and some crucial exonerating materials were ignored in the first trial (e.g. one of the police’s recorded audio material was misused by the first court since the content of the transcript did not match the voice recordings).

Another point that was used against Ahmed was the fact that he was showing a V sign, which in the first court was misinterpreted. It was claimed that Ahmed was giving a two-hour ultimatum to policemen to open up the border. The defence mentioned this gross misinterpretation as a sign that the verdict of the first instance court should be rejected. He then continued by arguing that a verdict of such importance cannot include 205 technical words, since those words create a biased atmosphere. He finished his defence proclaiming Ahmed as NOT guilty for illegal entry since he was free to move within the EU and had the right to enter legally. He did not commit a crime but rather an administrative offence by entering Hungary.

The court finally concluded that although the first instance court had the right to refuse available evidence, it did not analyse it enough and did not sufficiently explain why such evidence was refused. Relevant facts were established, evidence was presented, but the decision lacked proper reasoning and deliberation. Thus, the verdict was not consistent and objective. Moreover, the first instance court should have analysed whether throwing stones was indeed an attempt to force a state organ, or just an act of losing self control – the latter would have meant that the terrorism charge was not valid. Additionally, there seemed to be confusion in the police report on how much time was given as an “ultimatum” and who gave it in the first place.

Since the first instance court based its decision on these confused and inconsistent testimonies and interpretations of facts, the second instance court was unable to make an informed decision. The court thus concluded that the case must be retried to examine the evidence properly and that this needs to be done by a new council. Until then Ahmed has to remain in pretrial detention.

Migszol Csoport strongly disagrees with the attempt to portrait Ahmed as a terrorist and denounces the instrumentalisation of his case by government affiliated media to trump up hate. The gross misuse of anti-terrorism legislation for thinly documented, minor offences makes the years-long imprisonment of Ahmed a scandal and a form of cruelty that caricatures any notion of the rule of law.

for more information check: http://freetheroszke11.weebly.com/

[Berlin] 23.6.17: Demonstration “Hands off the squats” // 11h // Berlin

Wir veröffentlichen hier einen Aufruf aus Griechenland zu einem Internationalen Aktionstag am 23.6 gegen die geplanten Räumungen der Besetzungen Papoutsadiko, Zoodoxou Pigis 119, und City Plaza

— Am 23.6 um 11 Uhr wird es eine Kundgebung vor der Griechischen Botschaft in Berlin geben: Jägerstraße 54, Gendarmenmarkt U Hausvogteiplatz —

Bündnis Zwangsräumung verhindern
Griechenland Soligruppe

Hier der Aufruf:

Hands off the squats – Call for a gathering and international action day on  June 23rd

During the last month we witnessed the state escalating its anti-immigration policy of restrictions against refugees and the solidarity movement. In Addition to the EU management of migration issues which include forcing people to live in horrible conditions ,deporting them and denying them their basic human rights, the Greek government is revealing its totalitarian face by demonstrating its repression power through evicting political and housing squats for refugees. In the last days new information was leaked through newspapers, about court decisions focusing on the eviction of three more squats. Papoutsadiko, Zoodoxou Pigis 119 and City Plaza, one of the largest refugee squats that host around 400 people. It is clear that the state is focusing in shutting down every self organized free space, including all housing squats for refugees. An attack towards City Plaza or any squat is an attack to all of us. They know how to use the power of riot police forces, but we know how to use the power of solidarity! As long as they try to evict the squats, as long as they build camps and detention centers, as long as there are borders – we will also be there to fight back and fight for a better world! We won’t bend down, we won’t let them in, we stand united! We will show them again what we already proved, we live together, we struggle and we resist together – to defend the dignity of each individual, to defend our principles of solidarity and to keep our free spaces open. Therefore we call for a protest and a gathering on the 23rd of June, in front of the Ministry of Migration (Stadiou 27) at 7 pm. On the same day we call for an International Action of solidarity towards all squats and against evictions!

Keep the squats open!
Close the camps and detention centers!
Cancel the shameful EU-Turkey deal!
Open the borders!
You can’t evict a movement!

Coordination of Refugee Squats City Plaza, Notara 26, Oniro, Spyrou Trikoupi, Arahovis, 5th School, Jasmine School, Acharnon 22

[Athen] City Plaza Athen – Gericht ordnet Räumung an

Statement vom City Plaza zum Gerichtsurteil vom 8.6.2017, welches eine Räumung des “besten Hotels Europas” ermöglicht:

“Das City Plaza wird sich nicht beugen

“Wehrt euch gegen die Pass- und Ausländerbehörde,
gegen die furchtbaren Flaggen der Staaten
und die Diplomatie,
gegen die Fabriken für Kriegsmaterial”

Michalis Katsaros

Der Gerichtsbeschluss zur Räumung der Geflüchteten Unterkunft City Plaza ist ein weiterer Schritt in dem repressiven Management von Geflüchteten und Solidaritäts Bewegung. Von den Grenzschließungen bis zu dem EU-Türkei Deal der Schande – von den Gefängnislagern bis hinzu den Räumungen von Besetzungen, es wurde eine Politik Geflüchtete als Feinde zu vertreiben genutzt. Ein Feind der mit direkter oder indirekter Staatsgewalt bekämpft werden müsse. Gewalt an Körpern fremder Nationalitäten, die Angst in den Köpfen der Bevölkerung erzeugt und die Gesellschaft noch tiefer in die Barbarei stürtzt.
Über die letzten 14 Monate, ist das City Plaza, ebenso wie all die anderen Besetzungen zur Geflüchteten Unterbringung, ein Störfaktor im öffentlichen Raum, gegen eine Kulisse der konstanten Wiederholungen repressiver und rassistischer Diskurse gegen Geflüchtete. Denn das City Plaza hat nicht nur bewiesen, dass Geflüchtete und Anwohner*innen harmonisch und in Würde miteinander leben können. Es zeigt auch, gemeinsam mit anderen, ähnlichen Initiativen, dass da auch ein anderes Europa ist, dass anders ist als das Europa der Euro-Gruppe und Frontex. Ein Europa der Solidarität, des Widerstands, der Menchlichkeit. Und genau das ist es, was für die Machthaber*innen eine Störung darstellt. Wir werden keine Angst haben, wir werden uns nicht beugen, wir werden nicht klein bei geben.

Wir rufen auf zu massiver Unterstützung für das City Plaza und alle Geflüchteten Squats, auf jedem nur möglichen Weg.

Geflüchteten Unterkunft City Plaza”

Mehr Infos: http://solidarity2refugees.gr/city-plaza/

[Thessaloniki] Rettet das Social Centre – Immigrants Place (Steki) in Thessaloniki!

Wir als “You cant evict Solidarity”-Kampagne unterstützen finanziell das Social Center – Immigrants Place STEKI in Thessaloniki.

Mehr Infos findet ihr hier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilANbKoiTdA

Eine Erklärung von Aktiven des Steki – Thessaloniki:

Der Antirassistischen Initiative Thessaloniki und dem Social Centre – Immigrants Place (Steki) Thessaloniki droht in den letzten Monaten aufgrund von längst überfälligen Schulden die Schließung! Konkret handelt es sich um eine Summe von 85 000€ für die Public Power Corporation (PPC oder DEI auf Griechisch) sowie um eine Summe von 5 000€, die der Stadt Thessaloniki geschuldet werden. Beide sind durch eine inzwischen geschlossene Geflüchtetenunterkunft entstanden. Für die vergangenen 6 Jahre trugen sowohl die Antirassistische Initiative sowie das Steki die Last der Schulden, da stets die Schließung der einzigen Geflüchtetenunterkunft drohte. Zu dieser Zeit gaben wir unsere eigenen Namen her, um die Elektrizitätskosten der Unterkunft zu tragen. Es war die einzige sofortige Lösung, um die Unterkunft zu erhalten und Geflüchtete davor zu bewahren, obdachlos zu werden.
Hier der Link, der zu einer Crowdfunding-Kampagne führt und nochmal Schlüsselpunkte der Soliarbeit des Projekts ausführlich beschreibt:  Spenden und mehr Infos