Thanks so much for your incredible support so far. Because of you we have been able to distribute over £55k toward supporting the KTB prisoners!
But we still need your help. There are currently 20 people in prison for the Bridewell uprising. Many of them are serving long sentences, and Ryan Roberts will be in prison until at least 2029.
The cost of providing £50 a month canteen money to 20 people is £1000 a month. On top of that we regularly buy things like clothes and books, and pay travel costs for friends and family to visit. We are down to about £2k in reserves. So we really need your continued help and support.
Our costs have been considerably increased by the need to fund visits to two prisoners who are being held in Kent. Its vital that these to people, who are serving two of the longest sentences, get support. We have been arranging visits for them every month.
We have also been giving money to help people get back on their feet when they are released from prison. With your help we can increase this support.
Please help us to reach our stretch target of £70k. Thank you so much for all your incredible solidarity so far.
Another friend and comrade was recently sent to prison for 2.5 years for standing up to the cops at the KTB protest in March 2021. Please send him some messages of support and solidarity and let him know he’s not alone 🙂
Solidarity with Mexican Political Prisoner Jorge “Yorch” Esquivel Muñoz
Friday, May 19, 2023
WHAT’S HAPPENING?
Jorge is being criminalized as part of an ongoing attack against the “okupache” squat in Mexico City. Despite the overwhelming evidence that proves his innocence, the arbitrary arrests and police brutality he has been subjected to, and a legal case that have been plagued with irregularities since day one of this set up, Jorge remains injustly locked up in the Reclusorio Oriente prison. His hearings have been constantly postponed, which is a common practice with political prisoners in Mexico since it allows the State to draw out the legal process so as to keep them in prison as long as possible. Jorge’s next hearing is this Friday, May 19th, and we need your support to demand justice for our compañero.
Act! Call! Email! Post! ⚪ Contact or organize actions at your nearest Mexican embassy or consulate and demand for justice for Jorge Emilio Esquivel Muñoz at his hearing this Friday, May 19, 2023.
⚪ Share with your friends, family, communities and collectives about Jorge and the many other political prisoners in Mexico.
⚪ Send a letter and/or drawings to Jorge in prison.
⚪ Make graphic art, paintings, stencils, etc. to bring visibility to Jorge’s case.
Sample text: My name is _ and I am concerned for the political prisoner Jorge Emilio Esquivel Muñoz, currently being held at the Reclusorio Oriente prison in Mexico City. It is clear that this case is a set up and that he is being criminalized by for his political work as part of the “okupache” squat at the UNAM university because his case is filled with irregularities, he suffered arbitrary detentions and police brutality at the time of his arrests for the same case in 2016 and 2022, and the evidence proves his innocence. I demand that justice be served in Jorge’s hearing this Friday, May 19, 2023 and that he be released immediately.
Support Danny!!!! Danny was recently sentenced to 4.5 years for fighting back against police attacks on the Kill the Bill demo in Bristol in March 2021. He has been punished for daring to defend himself and others.
We are proud of Danny and all who stood together that night. Letters can be a real lifeline for prisoners so let’s let him know he is not alone and show our solidarity.
You can send him a card or use emailaprisoner.com
Write to: Daniel Ellis A5725EY, HMP Bristol, 19 Cambridge Road, Bristol BS7 8PS
Please also keep donating! https://www.gofundme.com/f/ktb-prisoner-support-fund. The monthly support costs for people in prison, their families to get to see them and other solidarity costs are pretty eye watering. All donations and fundraising efforts appreciated more than you can know!!!!
Please find the addresses for Kill the Bill Prisoners this May 2023. Please share the graphic far and wide. You can find more info on writing to prisoners here: https://bristolabc.org/prisoners/
Debbie is an IPP prisoner at HMP Eastwood Park seeking support. Her original tariff was 3 years – she has now served over 14 years. She has been to hell and back before and during her sentence.
She is a survivor of rape, gang rape and forced prostitution. She has been criminalised because of her drug use as a response to these traumatic events. Like thousands of other IPP prisoners, she is trapped in the system with no support. She recently lost her mum who was her main support and now she has no-one. Bristol ABC are asking for folks to support Debbie!
Please send Debbie a letter, card or email via email a prisoner to:
Debbie Fitzpatrick A5506AC, HMP Eastwood Park, Wotton-Under-Edge, Gloucester, GL12 8DB
She writes about the IPP sentence:
“I used to be a happy go lucky person but now I’m so depressed because I’m never going to be free of this sentence. It’s broke me, took my personality, moulded me into a long suffering depression and PTSD. I don’t get support, I just lost my mum, no one cares about us. We are just left to rot and forgot about.
It is so sad that us IPP have done everything – changed our ways, become a better person to where there is nothing else we can change but never get the chance to breathe, be free, go on holiday, get our own place, nothing is allowed. I committed my crime in 2008 and it’s now 2023. We are lost souls just existing not living”.
Please find the addresses for Kill the Bill Prisoners this April 2023. Please share the graphic far and wide. You can find more info on writing to prisoners here: https://bristolabc.org/prisoners/
Jorge “Yorch” Esquivel is a beloved compañero of the punk community, and a long-time participant of the Okupa Che Guevara. He was arrested on December 8, 2022 by plainclothes police as he was leaving the campus of the Ciudad Universitaria (of the UNAM university) in Mexico City as part of a campaign of criminalization against the Okupa.
BACKGROUND
On February 24, 2016, an operative was carried out in which plainclothes policemen arbitrarily detained him, “planting” drugs on him in order to fabricate crimes against him. The whole case was plagued with irregularities. He was transferred to Oaxaca and then to a maximum security prison in Hermosillo. The authorities used this strategy under the supposition that the distance would hinder his legal defense, but even so, thanks to the solidarity and legal work, he was reclassified from the crime of drug dealing to simple possession of narcotics, so he was released on bail in March 2016.
Jorge decided not to continue with the legal process due to the fabricated charges case against him and the climate of repression towards the Okupa. In the meantime, the frame-up continued to be put together. Constant threats and journalistic reports did not cease; the press even took him for dead and accused him of participating in organized crime.
On December 9, 2022 he was arrested in exactly the same place – a few steps outside Ciudad Universitaria, where the Okupa is located and again by plainclothes police – with the grounds for this illegal detention being that the Attorney General’s Office appealed the decision to reclassify the crime.
The compañero’s health is fragile due to an extended hospitalization a couple years back and more recent bouts with different illnesses.
CURRENT SITUATION
Jorge is currently incarcerated in the Reclusorio Oriente prison in Mexico City, where he was recently transferred from the observation and classification area to the general prison population area. For nearly three months he was unable to receive visits other than from his lawyers, but he had his first authorized visit on March 5.
The legal process is in the evidence stage. The Attorney General’s evidence includes the testimony of the police officers who detained Jorge; one of them is deceased and the other has not been located. Due to this, the hearing scheduled for February 17, 2023 did not take place and a date was set for April 14.
On behalf of the legal team that has been working in solidarity to defend Jorge, two expert reports will be presented by an external expert (called a perito in Mexico), one in dactyloscopy to prove that the packages of narcotics were never touched by Jorge, and another one in criminalistics. These expert reports will be presented once the hearing is held on April
Thanks to the solidarity of individuals, collectives and networks, it has been possible to cover Jorge’s expenses inside the prison, which have been very high due to the blatant corruption that reigns in Mexican prisons run by mafia groups that charge prisoners for everything from use of the bathroom to water, electricity, even the cell they are held in. We have raised 34,700 pesos so far towards the 70,000 needed, so in addition to Jorge’s costs in prison and other legal fees related to the case, we call upon the solidarity of our friends and compañerxs around the world to help us in supporting our compañero Yorch.
The following text is the political view of the Assembly in Solidarity with the four comrades in pre-trial detention Fotis D., Jason R., Lambros V. and Panagiotis V.
On November 14th, 2021 an unmarked police vehicle rammed into the comrades Fotis D. and Jason R. as they were in motion and then they were taken to the General Police Department of Attica. There, the uniformed garbage of the Greek Police proceeded to mandatory fingerprinting and DNA sampling, in order to link them to the attack on the Piraeus traffic police on the same night. In a process that took only half a day, they raided their homes, making sure to plant incriminating evidence, thus building a weak case against them. At the same time, the media indulged in their usual vile role, talking about homes being bomb and explosives manufacturing facilities, in an attempt to normalise the new criminal code in the public mind (which upgrades the possession and use of Molotov cocktails to a felony). It is worth noting, that the code came into force the day before their arrest. For the millionth time, the fabrication of guilty people by the media, has socially reinforced the prosecution’s argument and created the appropriate ground for the pre-trial detention of our two comrades, who have been held captive for 15 months in the Korydallos and Avlona hellholes.
With the trial date not being set and the case file still open, the interrogator had room to implicate more people. Following a prosecution conducted by the interrogator, on Tuesday morning 20/9, state cops accompanied by a prosecutor, stormed into the house of comrades Panagiotis V. and Lambros V. The comrades were arrested and detained in GADA, where for several hours the reasons for their detention were not known and they were not given the right to communicate with their lawyers or their close ones. The next day, they were tried by the Single-Member Plenary Court in Evelpidon for violation of the weapons law and were later released.
The comrades went to the Piraeus interrogator for the first time on the 26/9, for the case of the attack on the Piraeus traffic police, which was adjourned until the 6/10. Then, the intentions of the interrogator became clear to us, as well as her anger and prejudice, since she attempted to interrogate them without giving the file to the two lawyers. With an argumentative and ironic attitude, she did not forget to remind them of her power, threatening that she could issue an arrest warrant at that moment and take them into pre-trial detention. On the 6/10, a request for an exception was filed by the defence lawyers in order to replace the interrogator. Usually, the examination of these requests takes place one or two days later, but in this case it was rejected after the decision of the judicial council which was set up at that very moment, due to the interrogator’s constant pressuring to speed up the procedure in order to take our comrades into pre-trial detention, which seems to have been her main goal. The manipulations used by the state system in order to suppress in any way and by any means the struggling parts of society are not unprecedented. It proves once again how rotten their mob is, since the judicial council and the prosecutor in silent cooperation cover up a series of infringements on her behalf, such as questions of an interrogative nature in a postponement request and the aggressive attitude she had towards the lawyer. Late in the evening, using their companionship and personal relations with the comrades in custody, Fotis D. and Jason R., but also using the ridiculous and unheard of argument that our comrades had been hiding for 15 months, she puts them into custody and the next morning they are taken to Korydallos prison. Of course, we may “excuse” the interrogator because the state cops probably forgot to inform her about their daily surveillance for the last five months, at least, of their workplaces and home.
Although the pre-trial detention of individuals contradicts the supposed basic principles of their very own civil “law”, by depriving freedom without any “proof” of guilt, it is widely used against people in struggle. Especially when the case’s evidence, real or constructed, makes the acquittal of the accused possible, it is used to sadistically punish the very choice of a person to fight. It is the first stage in the application of the exception regime to those persecuted for political reasons, either as a constant threat for a particular level of charges and above, or as an almost obvious complement to 187A prosecutions. The state tries to cover up this punitive criminal treatment of the guilty and the innocent because of the supposed fear of fugitive justice and the danger to the wider community until the trial is held. These are arguments that do not reflect reality, as it is implied that fugitive justice and unlawful living are easy choices that each and every one of us can take to avoid the state’s frame-ups. As for the danger to society as a whole, it is at least ridiculous to use it as an argument against individuals accused of political actions targeting states institutions and services.
Another aspect of the present prosecution, which demonstrates the tactics used by authorities to crush those who continue to resist, concerns the repeated criminalisation of companionship and friendly relations, as it is explicitly admitted by the interrogator that there is no evidence other than the relationship of P.V. and L.V. with F.D. and I.R., who are already in custody for the same case. Of course, this tactic is not new. The case of comrade Vangelis Stathopoulos is an indicator of how easily and intentionally companionship is criminalised, as his choice to stand by his wounded comrade Dimitri Chatzivassiliadi was the reason he was sentenced to 19 years, without any other evidence and despite testimonies that place him in a different location from that of the robbery. A very important example is the case of the now released Panos Kalaitzis, who remained incarcerated in Korydallos Prison for six months, with the only evidence being the hospitality of his then ill companion Thano Chatziangelou, with whom he also cooperated professionally.
The intentionality of this atrocity on the part of the state is obvious. The attempt to isolate comrades is aimed at their physical and moral exhaustion. The voice of the courts in all these cases rings clearly in our ears: anyone who dares to show solidarity with strugglers is an enemy of the state. The very act of merely associating in any way with the people of the struggle is a criminal offence.
It is clear that in recent years, the state has been shielding itself legally and repressively, in order to be able to manage the probable social reactions due to the frequent crises (economic, health, energy, war). We have always known that civil justice is class-based and is a tool in the hands of the state against the oppressed who are struggling. The current government, especially, has made a clear choice to handle every social issue with repression. From the evacuations of political and residential squats and the legislation of a special police force for universities (which hasn’t yet accomplished its purpose due to the reactions), to the occupying army permanently camped in Exarchia to impose the redevelopment of Strefi Hill and the construction of the metro and the enforcement of the law restricting demonstrations (with clubs and water cannons), the state has now hired so many cops that it has ended up sending its “special” services DIAS (motorcycle-mounted police team) and DRASI (rapid response control force) to fires.
As is normal, the attack launched by the state on the wider society, is being specialised in the parts of society in struggle, and even more so in the anarchist field, with the intensification of prosecutions, the fabrication of charges, the opening of umbrella-cases which implicate a large number of comrades. All at the will of the state. At the same time, they are making their penal treatment more severe, aiming on the one hand to terrorise all and on the other hand to physically exterminate them.
Anarchist identity (and any identity that goes against their normality) has always been the target of the state and capital, with the state and the bosses terrified at the thought that there are still people who struggle and oppose their plans, with diverse struggles from solidarity actions (cooperative kitchens, mutual aid networks), to grassroots syndicalism, to the crushing of fascist and parastatal groups, to political and residential squats, and to attacks of all kinds on state and capitalist targets (cops, banks, police stations, etc.). We have been and will be here for many more years, using our bodies as a roadblock to their plans, putting forward our solidarity with the oppressed of this world and building comradeship and friendship through our struggles.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STRUGGLE CANNOT BE TERRORIZED
NO ONE ALONE IN THE HANDS OF THE STATE
TAKE YOUR DIRTY HANDS OFF OUR COMRADES
SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON
Assembly in Solidarity with the four comrades in pre-trial detention
