Translated by Act for freedom now/boubourAs
R.S. TRIAL UPDATE SESSION 17, 23/3/12
This session began with statements by N.Maziotis and P.Roupa concerning the bombing of the stockexchange, the case examined in the previous session.
“So let’s speak about the stock exchange, this organism of common welfare”, said N.Maziotis to open, characterizing the specific action as “one of the most successful of the organization and as one of the successful actions in the history of the urban guerrilla in Greece. It was an action included in the strategy of powerful attacks against targets of capital (Citibank, Eurobank, Stock exchange).
Part of the same strategy was the preparatory action during which Lambros Foundas was killed.” N.Maziotis then read out some parts of the communiques of RS from that period, which referred to the upcoming crisis and it’s managing by resorting to the IMF, as it happened in the end. Then he referred to the role of the stock exchange, not only in Greece but internationally, as a mechanism of redistribution of income towards the large capital, as a mechanism of robbing whole populations, as a carrier of social Darwinism. He also referred to the Greek stock market scandal in 1999 and to the role of the Simitis government.
He spoke of the structured bonds, but also about the lengthily robbing of the reserves and insurance funds. As a scandal, he noted, was characterized the opacity with which the relative procedures were carried out, while a scandal is also the law which delivered the money of the insured to the vultures of the stock market. He also made an extensive reference to different forms of financial gamble, such as the gamble with the foods in the Chicago stock exchange, which caused starvation in third world countries, but also revolts for the assurance of food, which were drowned in blood.
Attacks against stock exchanges, he concluded, are revolutionary acts. You will try us in the name of such criminals. P.Roupa focused her statement on the characterization of the stock exchange as a welfare organism. Mentioning statements of mega-capitalists of the stock market, she noted that they would never dare to characterize the stock exchange as a commonwealth institution. They speak of profit and blood. The social legalization of the stock market was taken on by the legislator, who voted for the terrorlaw, and the courts which apply it. Crime, she noted, is not only the stock exchange, it is capitalism itself, from its birth. She ended with references to today’s crisis, stressing that the system cannot find a smooth way out of it.
There will either be a revolution or a war, she said. The attack on the stock exchange was a lighthouse showing the way for the subversion of capitalism. After that, N.Maziotis re-submitted the application to call as a witness the president of the stock exchange Sp.Kapralos, for the chairman to reply with the usual avoidance “we will see”.
P.Roupa noted that the decision for the two failed attacks (on Shell and Citibank) mentions that there were not successful for reasons independent of the will of the accused, while its it obvious that the attacks were not successful. The cops did not go over the explosive mechanisms. The cops waited for the warning time to pass, they waited that much longer and then were convinced that the mechanism did not work. This is why we ask to call the cops, he concluded, to see what exactly happened and if things happened as the decision says. The chairman returned to the usual: We have decided that we will examine the demands for calling additional witnesses, when the examination of the witnesses in the trial brief has ended. No, we are making a specific demand. These postponements are a trick, answered N.Maziotis.
You will complete the list and then you will refuse all our demands. He reminded that the court agreed to call the witnesses from the Voulgarakis case and from the two cops who testified it was proven that the decision is purposely lying, speaking of clock mechanism and creating attempted homicide charges, when the mechanism was remote controlled and the action was cancelled by the organization.
In the stock exchange case, continued N.Maziotis, you refused the demand to examine additional witnesses, such as the supervisor of security who ordered the security guards to stay inside the building. Now will be examined the action against the ministry of Economy at Syntagma, which has some people with minor injuries, for which the no responsibility is on the organization, which made two warning calls and gave 35 minutes from the second cal.
We want you to decide now to call four witnesses. The two cops from the cop car, the police phone operator, and the ministries special guard. He read parts of articles of “Ta Nea” newspaper that spoke of responsibilities of the police, he characterized prosecutor Markopoulos who created the trial brief sleazy and a liar, because he didn’t call those witnesses who reveal the criminal attitude of the police. Either we will apply the model of oppression, therefore we don’t care about anything or you will apply the existing procedural rules, acting differently from the prosecutors who called witnesses only to strengthen their legal structure, noted S.Fitrakis. We cannot say we will call witnesses after months.
What is Maziotis asking you for? He is not asking for you to call revolutionaries, defence witnesses of his own. He is asking for police, he is asking you to call officers of your own state. Approve his demand, so the trial can continue calmly. D.Vagianou noted that it is criminal incompetence of the police who created the danger. We are not submitting demands just for the effect, but to define in each case the danger, as we say in legal terms, and to give light to the course to danger. We have the collective responsibility (everything is attributed to all the accused, without proof), we will go to the other extreme, to attribute them with the creation of danger with their belief as a criterion. These specific witnesses must be called and their examination should be before the examination of the other witnesses, so we can investigate the danger and the reasons that led to it. The statement of the prosecutor was really amazing.
First of all he expressed the opinion that the witnesses that were called and did not appear, as well as those who will be called from the court, should be examined at a special date, after the completion of the examination of all witnesses on the list! The court order has mistakes too, like in the case of Shell! It’s impossible that the cops went and deactivated the mechanism. They waited for the warning time to pass, they saw it didn’t explode and then they went over. Wherever there is a mistake in the court order it is contradicted in the trial brief. I will never say there was no phone call. If it is a fact there was, why do we have to call the operator of the newspaper? What will the president of the stock exchange add if we call him? At least at this point there is no reason to call any witness.
In the end I will judge if there is a need and then I will say yes to the calling of additional witnesses. If what the prosecutor said was the case, we would have had no concern. But the conscious lies of the court order were pointed out by us, commented P.Roupa. She reminded that when she herself said that the mechanism against Voulgarakis was remote controlled, the chairman told her she can tell all this during her testimony. What exactly happened was revealed by cops witnesses who we asked to be called to testify. We had realised this from before.
Sp.Fitrakis returned to his argument and concluded by saying to the judges: do what they ask you to do so we can have a smooth continuation of the procedure. After the break, S.Nikitopoulos asked to make a statement. As a political subject, he said, I consider as absolutely legitimate the demand of the accused who have taken the political responsibility for their participation in the Revolutionary Struggle.
Whoever would be in their place would do the same. But, I have also the identity of an accused and with this second identity I state that I am glad for the statement of the prosecutor that the court order has mistakes. I remind that for me the decision mentions as severe evidence of guilt the fact that in my home they found a copy the “Pontiki” newspaper! Intervening, his advocate Anni Paparousou, after noting that the prosecutor admits that there are mistakes in the court order, she reminded that the objection concerning the vagueness of the decision has already been denied. She reminded also, that at the beginning of the trial the prosecutor repeated one of the obvious mistakes of the court order. How can you continue to try with a court order that contains mistakes? Combined with the vagueness of the court order and the anti-constitutionality of article 187A of the penal code, you have a false base. These should have been diagnosed from the beginning and this trial should have never gone ahead.
Not a sound came from the prosecutor, chairman or judges. The chairman then announced that the court denies the demand to call Kapralos as a witness, that he will decide later for the calling of the bomb disposal team in order to testify on what happened with the explosive mechanisms at Shell and Citibank and that he accepts the demand to call four witnesses proposed by the members of the RS, which will be called to testify in the next session.
N.Maziotis and D.Vagianou reminded that they asked that these specific witnesses come first. Is it so important who comes first? Asked innocently the chairman. It is important, because those who took the political responsibility do not want it to be heard that the Revolutionary Struggle put human lives in danger, answered S.Fitrakis. Followed the examination of 16 witnesses of this list, which took less than an hour! These witnesses were so important that, that they tried to find a question to ask them and couldn’t. Six of them were employees in banks, post office and the ministry, who got there two hours after the incident and simply saw that some windows were smashed! One was the courier of “Pontiki” newspaper who went and picked up the communiques from the spot where the RS said they left them.
All he did was pickup an envelope while wearing gloves, put it in a drawer in the editing room and left. They called him as an important witness! One more was the janitor of the ministry of Economy, who the previous day was asked by someone if the cameras work ok. Of course, he didn’t pay any attention because every day thousands of people come by and ask him all sorts of things. One more was the parking attendant at Syntagma. He had seen a car with some guys in it, but was told by the supervisor of politicians security, who have their offices nearby, that the people in the car, who re-appeared the previous days, “are our people, security bodyguards”.
Near there, said the parking attendant, there is also a club, where major lawyers hang out. There was also a kiosk owner who heard the explosion and saw some windows breaking, but from far away, on the other block. 10 out of 15 witnesses had nothing to offer, but they as well ridiculed the charge list. Three of them got minor injuries. A worker which was going to work walking down Mitropoleos street, a foreigner dishwasher of “NEON” who was cleaning the windows when the explosion took place and a retired accountant who was also walking down Mitropoleos to go to the market. All three testified that there was no barrier on Mitropoleos. They didn’t see any cops. They didn’t notice anything different than what they saw every day, nothing that made them think twice. Simply, there were no police to protect me, testified the worker. She saw the police about half an hour later, when she came out of the hotel where she got medical treatment.
Actually, the cop who saw her with blood all over her head, simply showed her the way to walk to Fillelinon street where the ambulance was. Syntagma is a cosmopolitan place, they could have put a ribbon, said the retired accountant. There’s so many police at Syntagma, but no one went to secure the area, although as we found out later, there were two warning phone calls. After the explosion 50 police officers immediately appeared! The fourth witness was the owner of “Katseli” bakery. He was together with another four people. We were seriously damaged, while if they had informed us we would have closed the strong shutters the shop has and nothing would have happened to it, he said.
He himself had gone, two minutes before the explosion, to through away some garbage next to where the motorbike was with the explosive mechanism! He also stated that he believed that whoever put the mechanism did not want to harm anyone. Finally we had the personal Waterloo of the chairman. The receptionist of “Eleftherotypia” newspaper was called to testify, who received the warning call. Because this person has received calls for three actions, the chairman asked him about the explosion at Eurobank in Argiroupoli! Advocate D.Vagianou had to intervene to and remind that this specific witnees was called to about the explosion in the ministry of Economy.
She even gave the chairman the witness’s preliminary testimony, because the chairman had not put it his file. Ask him yourself then, said the chairman to D.Vagianou, obviously pissed off about the mistake he just made. It was revealed therefore, that this person had received two phone calls in a space of four minutes (the second one was because whoever made the first call realized that the signal wasn’t very strong), that he then informed the Police twice and that he received a confirmation call from the police. He also testified, that he remembers this specific case very well, contrary to others, because he went through a lot of trouble, because he was called many times to GADA (Athens police headquarters) to testify, in the frame of an internal investigation taking place within the police, because obviously some cops claimed that the receptionist had not informed them. The newspaper always called the police immediately even if the person who picked up the phone thought it was a farce.
Additionally, as he said, from his experience he knew that when the person who calls sais at the end “it’s not a farce”, 80% of the time is actually not a farce. It was proven therefore, how right the members of the RS were, who asked that four cops immediately involved in the incidents were called to testify. ‘Why did you call all these people?’, commented in a sarcastic tone N.Maziotis, when the witnesses of fifteen seconds who had nothing to say were marching through. In the end, he also, submitted to the secretary of the court the publications of “Ta Nea” newspaper he mentioned before, so that they become part of the trial brief. Documents “forgotten” by the prosecutor who created the court order.
http://actforfree.nostate.net/?p=9766#more-9766