From June 18th, 2014, prisoners in all Greek prisons have abstained from prison meals as a way of protest against the fascist bill for type C prisons, and in defence of the right to furlough and release on parole.
However the minister of Justice and the government insist on ignoring our protest. They have not responded in any way to our just demands, and provocatively aim to pass the bill in summer sessions of the parliament, in their attempt to prevent people’s reaction.
Against this bill which condemns us to remain prisoners for life without rights or hope, we put our bodies and souls as a shield. This is the only thing we have left.
From Monday, June 23rd, 2014 we start a mass hunger strike in all prisons across Greece. We claim our rights, and we fight to remain humans, instead of human shadows locked up and forgotten into despair.
We demand:
1) The withdrawal of the fascist bill for type C prisons. We say no to the Greek Guantanamo, a prison within a prison, without furloughs, without visitations, without tomorrow…
2) Furlough and parole should be an undeniable right of all prisoners. Greece is the only country where the inmate undergoes trial and punishment every single day. While the law dictates that anyone who has served 1/5 and 3/5 of his/her sentence can be granted days of leave from prison and provisional release, respectively, prisoners are obliged to pass again and again from the holy inquisition of prison prosecutors, who deny the requests one after the other without any grounds or pending disciplinary action. This is how they create desperate prisoners and reproduce criminality.
3) To apply equity before the law for all. All prisoners sentenced to life in prison for drugs according to the old law 3459/2006 (because the police made sure they are portrayed as alleged drug lords, instead of addicted users) should have the right to get a retrial in accordance with the new law and its beneficiary provisions for drug users (4139/2013).
4) To apply the right of conjugal visits. In prison they deprive you of your freedom. But in Greek prisons they deprive you even of the smile of human communication and direct contact with your loved ones. Conjugal visits are permitted in prisons of all European countries; an inmate is being deprived of human communication only in Greece.
5) To end, now, the continuous captivity of those facing deportation. Hundreds of imprisoned migrants remain locked up due to bureaucracy of embassies, even though they have served their full sentence. We demand the immediate release of these prisoners.
We demand that the ministry of Justice deal with the real problems in prisons and immediately withdraw the fascist bill for the Greek Guantanamo of Domokos prison.
The minister of Justice is to be held responsible for every day of hunger strike and every prisoner whose life is in danger.
WE THE PRISONERS ON HUNGER STRIKE WILL WIN.
STRUGGLE – DIGNITY – SOLIDARITY
Prison Struggle Committee