Freedom now for Simos Seisidis

international | crime and justice | news report

Monday March 07, 2011 01:48

by Comrades in solidarity - Comrades in solidarity

An anarchist imprisoned in Greece

On the 30/3/2011 the trial for the case of “the robbers in black” will take place in the first degree, regarding the January 2006 National bank robbery on Solonos st., central Athens, and six more bank robberies. It is the same case for which Yiannis Dimitrakis was finally sentenced, in the second degree, to 12,5 years of imprisonment. This time Simos Seisidis, who had been a fugitive for 4,5 years, is in the place of the accused.

FREEDOM NOW FOR SIMOS SEISIDIS
INTERNATIONAL CALL FOR SOLIDARITY

On the 30/3/2011 the trial for the case of “the robbers in black” will take place in the first degree, regarding the January 2006 National bank robbery on Solonos st., central Athens, and six more bank robberies. It is the same case for which Yiannis Dimitrakis was finally sentenced, in the second degree, to 12,5 years of imprisonment. This time Simos Seisidis, who had been a fugitive for 4,5 years, is in the place of the accused.

Simos was arrested on the 3/5/2010, after a coincidental and unfortunate run-in with a police patrol. As he was a fugitive, Simos did not stop to be controlled and, in the pursuit that followed, was shot from behind, resulting in his life being endangered and, finally, in the amputation of his right leg, due to the severity of the injury. Despite all this, a case has been brought against him also for this incident, with Simos being charged of attempted homicide against the cop who shot him in the back, having first taken cover behind a car! He is in pre-trial detention also for this case, as the inquisitor wanted to bring it to a close in haste, not even waiting for the report from the medical coroner on the amputated limb. The report was finally delivered AFTER A NINE MONTH DELAY, FULLY CONFIRMING OUR STATEMENTS.

Simos became a fugitive after an arrest warrant was issued against him (and against his brother Marios Seisidis and the comrade Marios Tsironis, who are still wanted), following the bank robbery during which Yiannis Dimitrakis was arrested. Without any substantial evidence against them and due to the criminalization of their personal and comradely relationships, the three comrades were forced to flee, not expecting, and justly so, any justice by civil justice, the repressive mechanisms, and the terror-spouting puppets on the news. None of the three aforementioned powers contradicted them: the first sentenced them in absentia to 7,5 years of imprisonment for misdemeanors concerning the seven bank robberies, recently rejecting Simos' right to appeal. The second, after placing the astronomical amount of 600.000 euro on their heads, finally tried to kill him. And the last, with their police leaks and “terror” articles all these years, paved the way for the bullet that finally found its target...

The comrade is also facing the charge of seizure of weaponry, based solely on DNA evidence (which was found in a different area from where the incident took place, but that's fine print if you are an anarchist and indeed a wanted one). Recently, prosecutions based on DNA are...fashionable with the Greek authorities, who have in this way found an easy way to incriminate people, granted that the genetic material of each and everyone of us can be found or transported anywhere at any given moment. With another older case still pending, for which he could have easily been acquitted if not a fugitive (after all he was recently acquitted from yet another frame-up against him), Simos finds himself in prison sentenced for two cases and in pre-trial detention for another three cases, in total. The essence of the case does not lie however in its legal-juridical side, although we consider a short description of the situation as necessary, in order for the comrades inside and outside of Greece to have a clear as possible picture of the intensity and size of the attempt from the side of the state to annihilate this particular comrade. We want the solidarity to his person, in face of his court on the 30/3, to be matching in its intensity and size.

In the last two years in Greece, the empire strikes back. In fear of the social explosions that might erupt due to the intensity of the economic crisis, it is trying to eliminate the factor, who through the diffusion of political consciousness during the explosion, could transform it into a revolution: the anarchist/anti-authoritarian milieu In attempting this, democracy has lost the last even facade of democraticness. Protesters are beaten with unbelievable fierceness, anarchist spaces are labeled as safe-houses, people are led to prison accused of participating in … unnamed and unknown armed groups, others are accused of being “terrorists”, because they were walking down a road or were drinking a coffee. But unfortunately for those in power, were they repress one focus of resistance, another ten spring up...

They are trying to transform social struggles into a harmless and pointless activity, through the use of fear and repression. It is up to us to throw that fear back into their face. They are trying, through the paradigmatic annihilation of those in struggle who find themselves in their clutches, to deter the rest from choosing to struggle and resist, and to render the imprisoned comrades into ghosts, still remembered by only a few friends and relatives... It is up to us to not forget our comrades. It is up to us to take them back.

WE WILL NOT ALLOW SIMOS SEISIDIS' ANNIHILATION. Not because he is “innocent”. Nor because he was brutally “punished” by the repressive mechanisms. BUT BECAUSE HE IS A FIGHTER.

WE DEMAND HIS IMMEDIATE RELEASE. Not out of “democratic sensitivity”. Nor out of humanism. BUT BECAUSE HE IS A COMRADE.

WE CALL ON THOSE IN STRUGGLE, TO COMRADES INTERNATIONALLY, TO JOIN THEIR VOICES WITH OURS IN FACE OF THE TRIAL ON THE 30/3/2011. Not out of pity. Nor out of duty. But because we are anarchists.
AND SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON

Comrades in solidarity

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Freedom now for Simos Seisidis