Act for freedom now!/boubourAs
R.S. Trial Update, Session 19, Thursday, 19/4/12
With the beginning of the session N.Maziotis paid respect to fighter Dimitris Christoulas (the man who committed suicide outside parliament because of his debts). His action, he said, is related to this case, because he left a clear political message, a call for armed struggle, which was especially addressed to the youth who have no future. He read the entire letter left by Dimitris Christoulas and noted that the call to arms is necessary and urgent in order to overthrow the regime.
Concerning the action on the ministry of Economy, N.Maziotis noted that it was an answer to the neoliberal policy of the then Karamanlis government. What is the ministry of Economy? The main ministry which applies the policies of the individual government. The aim of this ministry is the support of the rich and the robbing of the poor. Therefore, it applies class policy (at this point he read parts from the communique published by the Revolutionary Struggle). What is this development policy, which they always speak of? It is dictated by the EU and the ECB. N.Maziotis spoke of the lending model of a country for the support of the capital, the application of industrialization, the shrinking of the workforce.
This “development policy”, he said, is responsible for the massive debt and the enslavement of the people by the IMF. Insurance is downgraded, everything is privatized, even Health, the insurance funds are robbed by law. Then, N.Maziotis referred to the upsurge of neoliberalism, with Mitsotakis government, which was developed and imposed substantially by the Simitis government. He spoke of the common aim of Pasok and Nea Dimokratia, the support of the capital, and differences in the imposition rhythms, he mentioned Maastricht and the integration of Greece into the EMU, which was considered an accomplishment.
Then he went on to the Alogoskoufis period, during which the action of the RS took place. He spoke of the “inventory”, the austerity policies, the hit on wages and pensions, the privatizations which took the form of selling off everything. The organization with its action attacked this exact policy, concluded N.Maziotis, reading relevant excerpts from the communique. In my first statement, he continued, when this court started, I had said that others should be in the position of accused, in a populist court. One of them was also Alogoskoufis.
They are the same which Christoulas mentions in his message. As RS we said that prosperity in the EU is a myth and that when the crisis comes it will have excruciating consequences. Because crises are a main component of capitalism. Especially today, he concluded, the subversion of the regime with arms is more urgent than ever. The suicide of Christoulas was a political act and not an act of a desperate or a helpless man, noted P.Roupa. It was a protest of the junta of the troika and the EU. It had a critical attitude against the forms of struggle.
D.Christoulas died to send a message concerning the way in which we have to fight. Our older struggles failed, our duty is to respect this message. For the action on the ministry of Economy, P.Roupa stood at its characterization by the charge list as a commonwealth foundation, when it is, as she said, the headquarters of the international elite, which prepare the basic economic plans as they are dictated from the EU and the ECB. She referred to the content of the communique of the RS and spoke analytically of the substance of the crisis and its administrating policies which the governments apply in favour of the large capital.
The attack on the ministry of Economy, concluded P.Roupa, wanted to show the way in which we must fight in the class war with the bourgeoisie. Is there a citizen who will say that the attack on the ministry of Economy was aimed at them? No one. We have the popular support. Alogoskoufis probably doesn’t. Bring him so we can see what he will say, said N.Maziotis.
Sp.Fitrakis then submitted a decision of the Athens Administrative Court, which awarded compensation of 25.000 euro to an injured woman from the attack on the ministry of Economy and recognizes the responsibilities of the police concerning the closing off up of the area. With this decision is recognized the active reasoning, commented D.Vagianou. The danger zone was exposed and this happened after the police purposely made a decision. The way it was handled, commented P.Roupa, reveals things concerning the actions of the police. They show amazing reliability in the beatings of citizens-protestors, but when it comes to protecting them, as in this case, their attitude is inappropriate. I wonder, she continued, did the witnesses who did not come to testify in the court for the ministry go to testify to the Administrative Court or not?
Only the special guard came to this court and spoke only about Nikis road. She concluded asking for the court to insist that the cop witnesses come to testify about the incidents in Syntagma square. Then were examined witnesses for various actions of the RS, all of them cops. Some of them did not avoid be ridiculed, since they tried to puff up the case and as soon as they got pressured by the advocates would be put back into their positions. Andreou, a witness for the shooting against the riot cop van in the University area, heard two shots and ran to the spot, where he found marks from 3-4 bullets on the vehicle and 1 on the tire, initially claiming that they probably did not get the riot cops because of inexperience, to admit later, that if they wanted they could have got them, since they were shooting with Kalashnikovs from a distance of 10-15 metres.
The driver of the riot cop van which was bombed on Petrou Ralli street, in October 2004, answering the question of Sp.Fitrakis if he thinks it’s logical to be charged with 20 attempted homicides, when no one was injured, said: “if we were on the right, maybe we would have had such an incident”. Yes, but you weren’t, replied the advocate. The same cop was also driving the riot cop van that was shot at in the University area and became… poetic: “When you shoot, you want to harm. Otherwise, they were simply inexperienced”. On the contrary, cop Gerogiakonos, spoke of a medium strength bomb, which did not cause injuries. Riot cop Aggelopoulos, however, although he admitted that he was in the left lane for security reasons, spoke of a strong explosion, which if not aimed at deaths, definitely aimed at injuries.
The prosecutor was careful, since he realized that RS does not play with the truth, asked the cop if the bomb, in his opinion, had been placed to kill, to get the answer that… “it could have”. Were the vehicles or the cops harmed? Asked Sp.Fitrakis. No, answered the riot cop. Then, maybe it wasn’t such a terrible explosion? How do you judge the action from the result? Continued the advocate, for the riot cop to answer: “I don’t know. It is not my sector”! Just before he knew very well.. The cop who was following the riot cop van also spoke of a not very strong explosion. This action had as a target to send a message that the police is in danger, commented P.Roupa. It wasn’t mad with a remote control. The cable proves a wired connection and therefore should be very close to the spot. It was an intimidation attack and is obvious from the kind of damages and from the circumstances. It was not an operational weakness, it was a political choice.
Cop Strathiotis, testifying about the bomb on Kallithea police station in May 2004 referred to the information which took place and to the evacuation of the area as well as the three explosions which followed, but insisted: Yes there was no injury, but whoever puts bombs wants to kill! A cop logic, which later was made to become clearer concerning the warning and the timely evacuation of the station. He even knew about the warning call to the newspaper, but he initially avoided mentioning it! Cop Zaharos, guard at the Labour ministry, described the incidents as such: ‘The building was empty. I was outside almost all the time. Just before two I noticed a person with a heavy walk. He had gone over a bag. He did not continue walking. I asked him if it was his. He said no. he opened it and it was a bomb. I told him to leave it and go. He left it near the garbage bin. There were many bags there, probably there was a strike. I did not see the inside of the bag. I informed the police.
We had material damages, but no injuries.’ Then answering questions of D.Vagianou, he admitted that he told the person who found the bomb to leave it next to the garbage, because… “Everything happened so fast”! N.Maziotis came back to the demand summon the person who found the bag to testify because in his preliminary testimony he sais: “He told me: ‘Don’t worry, put it there’.” If there are damages outside of the ministry it is the responsibility of this specific person, concluded N.Maziotis. P.Roupa, destroying all talks of the non-existence of a warning call, noted that there was a warning call before the signal given to the cops.
The call was made at 02.36 and the signal was given at 02.40. They were warned, she stressed, but none of them are called to confirm it. It seems as if the bomb was found accidentally, something that is not true. The bomb was at the entrance of the ministry. Only the ministry would be damaged. From this it is shown what responsibilities the guard had. Also, near the ministry there was a security guard (near the sidewalk where the garbage was). D.Vagianou noted that the trial brief is lacking in the part of the warning call and P.Roupa asked to call the phone operator, from the preliminary testimony of which it comes out that there was a warning call to “Eleftherotypia” newspaper, as noted by M.Daliani. The prosecutor admitted that it’s true that there was a phone call and proposed, if there was no objection, to read the testimony of the phone operator.
The trial was interrupted until Monday, April 30th
http://actforfree.nostate.net/?p=9812#more-9812