Italian & British news

ELP Information Bulletin (11th December 2006)

Dear friends

ELP has three lots of news for you today.

    1) (Italian) Il Silvestre anti-GM crop trial Court of Appeal conclusions
    2) (British) AR prisoner, Don Currie, sentenced
    2) (Italian) Lecce Defendants update

1) No one can ever accuse the Italian legal system of being fast
moving!  A few years ago ELP reported the arrests of 26 people
following an anti-GM protest in October 2000.  The protest was
organised by Il Silvestre and involved people protesting outside the
offices of companies linked to GM crops.  We also believe a small
amount of anti-GM graffiti may of been sprayed onto the walls of the
buildings.

The protest was a two day event and on the second day the police
tried to prevent the protesters from marching down their intended
rout.  The protesters tried to negotiate with the police but the
police baton charged the protesters.

Forced to defend themselves with their placards, the protesters where
chased through the streets of Florence.

As we said, 26 people were arrested but by the time the case got to
court, in 2004, the 26 defendants had been reduced to 13.  In 2004,
following their trial 11 people where convicted of various offences,
however all 11 appealed against their sentences and in December 2006
(over six years later) the Court of Appeal ruled on the sentences.

Out of the 11 who were convicted, one person had their conviction
overturned and was aquitted of all the charges against him.  Eight
saw their sentences reduced by half and were given 8 months suspended
sentenced.  Whilst the final two also saw their prison sentences
halved and were ordered to serve 1 year imprisonment each.

One of the people who has been sentenced to 1 year imprisonment is
now appealing against that sentence and is now under house arrest
pending their next appeal (as we said, no one can accuse the Italian
legal system of being fast moving).

The other person, who has been sentenced to 1 year imprisonment, is
current Il Silvestre prisoner Costantino Ragusa.

Costantino was accused of being an organiser of the anti-GM protest
and hence his 1 year sentence.  In a separate trial, Costantino has
also been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for allegedly burgling
and firebombing a multinational organisation.  Plus he is serving
five years for his alleged role in the COR actions.  In addition to
this, he is also awaiting trial accused of involvement in the
destruction of electricty pylons which were carrying nuclear power.

Costantino supporters are confident that when he appeals against his
sentences he will see either some clemancy or a reduction in his
sentence.  But for now, he is serving 7.5 years imprisonment for all
his various alleged activity.

Please send letters of support to:

    Costantino Ragusa
    Casa Circondariale
    Via Prati Nuovi 7
    27058 Voghera (PV)
    Italy.

2) A couple of days ago, British Animal Rights activist, Don Currie,
was given a 12-year prison sentence having previously pleaded guilty
to placing incendairy devices at various locations linked to animal
abuse including people connected to Huntingdon Life Sciences.

Please send letters of support to:

    Donald Currie TN 4593
    HMP Woodhill
    Tattenhoe Street
    Milton Keynes
    MK4 4DA
    England.

3) And finally, supporters of the Italian Lecce Defendants have sent
ELP the following update...

Update Nottetempo

The hearing held on November 23 finished much earlier than expected.
The judge was very disappointed that the public prosecutor failed to
bring his final witnesses to court, so he postponed the hearing to
January 18.

A request for permission to work presented by Salvatore’s lawyer was
rejected. The comrade, however, read a declaration, which was also
signed by some other co-defendants.

Declaration made by the Lecce anarchists in court

We have decided to make a short declaration to clarify a few
questions and to refute the lies that priest Cesare Lodeserto told in
this court at the last hearing.

First of all, we want to give words back their real meaning, which
carries a precise content; but where there is the intent to conceal
reality, the first step is to call it by different names and twist it
until it loses any relationship with the truth. This is a very common
practice these days, where neo-language is largely employed, making
wars become ‘peace missions’ or ‘humanitarian operations’ and
detention centres for immigrants ‘welcome centres’. Similarly, father
Cesare calls the prisoners in the Regina Pacis camp ‘guests’ and
talks about a system of ‘passive surveillance’. It is rather strange
that these ‘guests’ were watched by a system of video-surveillance,
that ‘police had to intervene in the camp’ (to quote Lodeserto),
‘arrests were carried out in the structure’ and ‘the people in the
camp were registered according to the regulations normally in use in
such structures’. In fact the immigrants were registered and listed
like goods. Prisoners are also registered, and deportees in Nazi
concentration camps were listed and registered too.

To move on, both father Cesare and the inquisitors claimed that the
revolts in the Regina Pacis camp broke out when anarchists
demonstrated outside that hideous place. We are not interested in
hearing that we are capable of such; on the contrary, as anarchists
we try to find any instrument that is useful to intervene in a
reality that we find intolerable.

The point is quite different and also, let’s say, banal: revolts
break out spontaneously where dignity is crushed and life is
offended. This simple truth is widely demonstrated by the story of
totalitarian institutions in general and the Regina Pacis camp in
particular, as proved by a very long list of episodes. It is
therefore the self-determination of individuals and not anarchists’
ability that brings about all individual and collective revolts.

Finally, we want to clarify what father Cesare claimed, referring to
an event that occurred on August 10 2004, following which a Rumanian
in his late twenties, Vasile Costantin, has remained totally
paralysed. We will not discuss whether what this man stated is true
(that he was beaten up by the cops while lying on the ground after
falling from the fence; we know such gentle police practices all too
well), we only want to make it clear that never ever has father
Cesare or anyone else working in the Regina Pacis camp ‘helped this
man in any possible way’, as the latter declared. On the contrary,
the young Rumanian was totally abandoned by the operators of the camp
who simply informed his wife in Rumania that he was dying, without
further getting in touch with her. Vasile, known as Vali, was visited
in the hospital in Lecce by a few comrades who warmed him with love
and affection, according to authentic solidarity, which is extraneous
to economic and personal interests. These comrades and other
sensitive people managed to get Vali into a specialised clinic for
spinal rehabilitation in Imola where he stayed for a few months,
without unfortunately recovering much. The same people continue to
support Vali now that he is back in Rumania. We are not saying that
because we want to be considered as charitable people or because we
want to be honoured with medals that we despise, but because we want
to establish the truth and tear away father Cesare’s veil of lies.
The latter paid one and only one visit to Vali in hospital after he
learned that others had already been, as he wanted to know who these
people were.

Rudolf Hoss, a commander in Auschwitz concentration camp, wrote in
his memories while detained in prison in Poland awaiting execution:
‘I never became insensitive to human suffering: I have always seen it
and suffered for it. I had to crush it because I was not allowed to
be soft’. He also boasted that he had never personally beaten up any
prisoner in the camp. Father Cesare, on the contrary, cannot even say
that.

That’s all.


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British Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network
BM Box 2407
London
WC1N 3XX
England
www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk

Italian ELP
c/o ELP4321@Hotmail.com