Thanks to solidarity mobilizations, Theodoros Iliopoulos is free at last! Free after 49 days of hunger strike. The last prisoner from the December 2008 insurrection in Greece is now free.
We have been pretty slack with news from Greece recently (sorry!), and the mainstream media has only been interested in the devastating fire on the edges of Athens. But meanwhile the intense war of the Greek state and fascist paramilitaries, against the social movements for social change and against migrants in particular, continues apace. It is therefore a delight to post up some good news relating to the freeing (on bail) of the last person held from last December’s insurrection. We reprint below an article lifted directly from anarkismo.net, and you can find more background info here, on the Occupied London blog, and at Libcom. Check out too news on the No Border camp at Lesvos in Greece here and here.
Here’s the article: “The Greek government could not ignore anymore the massive movement formed in solidarity with innocent detainee Theodoros Iliopoulos and set him free at last!
the former prisoner
Theodoros Iliopoulos is free after 49 days of hunger strike. He was arrested in December and detained with fabricated molotov-throwing charges. His innocence was defended by witnesses, but the only witness reports considered by the “justice” authorities were those of two police officers. He went on hunger strike on 10 July and for more than a month the authorities refused to provide him with proper medical support at a public hospital and instead kept him in the under-funded and under-equipped prison’s medical room. He was hospitalized into Sotiria Hospital only a few days ago.
Anarchist comrades in Greece and abroad quickly mobilized in solidarity, and later leftist and communist political parties also made announcements in his support. As the voices demanding his release were becoming more and more, and as his case was being picked up by progressive media (due to massive protests and other solidarity actions that couldn’t be left unreported) the government couldn’t ignore the protests anymore and set him free at last. Considering his hunger strike went on for 49 days, it makes you think what would happen had there been no solidarity movement…
Free, but with a few conditions: he isn’t allowed to disembark from the country and every bi-weekly period he should report to the local police station. He was set free without the need for bail payment.
Comrades in Greece had planned a solidarity march, which will go on as planned. It should be made clear that Theodoros Iliopoulos won thanks to his determination and to the Greek and international solidarity movement in his support.
Meanwhile, in Naxos, a small island in Greece, immigrants went on hunger strike today to protest about the denial of their human rights. The social war continues…
Thanks to everyone who supported Theodoros Iliopoulos. Solidarity is our weapon!”