Neither good nor bad, neither guilty nor victims...
Call for solidarity
30.Nov.99 - Freedom of movement frightens many. It is accorded or, more often, refused, according to discriminatory criteria: country of origin; sex; level of education; familial, social, political, or economic status... the climate created by the security forces is accentuated by laws connected to the September 11th attacks and new tools of repression, such as the Schengen Information System. It was to construct a place of rupture with the processes that control our lives that the international No Border network organized a camp at Strasbourg, from July 19 to 28.
Throughout the week, police violence kept us in a state of permanent tension: the continuous presence of the CRS (riot police) next to the camp, videosurveillance at the camp's entrance and throughout the city, general omnipresence of police, mass identity checks and body searches, provocations and humiliations, systematic attacks along different points of marches, gassing, beating, rubber bullets, police surrounding groups of protesters and harrassment of people in marches all the way back to the campsite. The strategy of the public authorities has been to progressively lock us in, first via the imposition of an isolated and easily controllable site (a trap), leading up to the prefectural prohibition of all protests the last three days and the prohibition on leaving the camp in groups of more than five. The ultimate symbolic reprimand, the manu-military accompaniment of all the protests and actions at the end of the week back to the entrance of the parc du Rhin (Rhine Park), which became a prison without walls.
The toll of this repressive politice is clear: 50 arrests; several people gravely injured, two by rubber bullets; seven trials (rebellion; insulting a police officer; attack on a police officer; vandalism; carrying "6th degree" weapons, such as a hammer inside a toolbox...) Faced with this escalation of security forces; those who oppose the intrusion of the systems ands tools of control into social relations find themselves the target of implacable repression. The state intends to muzzle all dissent against the established order.
The trial dates are:
-August 21st (one trial)
-February 23th
-February 25th (two trials for three persons)
-and February 28th (two trials)
Currently Ahmed Meguini, a well-known activist and cofounder of the organization "Spontaneous Movement," is in preventative detention in the Strasbourg jail until his trial on August 21st. His arrest was targeted and violent; his wrist was broken. Ahmed has been placed in solitary confinement, which signifies among other things that he will not have any visitation rights. It is very urgent that he get out of prison before his trial, so he can arrange a legal defense, to have a reduced sentence, and to have the chance not to have to fulfil his sentence as soon as the trial is over. As long as he is still held in preventative detention, he must be released from solitary confinement and have the right to receive visits. It is during this week that the decision will be made whether or not to keep him in preventative detention, so we must act now.
Proposals of actions for political presure: sending massive faxes to the prosecutor, to the french consulates and embassies, and to newspapers; rallies in front of embassies and consulates, and other actions. (For a list of French embassies and consulates, see www.embassyworld.com)
At noon on Friday, August 2, there will be a telephone/fax blast to protest Ahmed's continuing solitary confinement and the fact that he is not allowed visits.
Prosecutor's fax number:
M. Philippe Vannier
03.88.75.29.30
03.88.75.29.63
We also call for financial solidarity, to pay the lawyers of the defendants and to send money to prisoners. Contributions can be made to our bank account ; we will distribute the account number shortly.
the Il/Legal Team
We are neither lawyers nor legal professionals, but participants in the noborder camp (the the activists' legal guide). The IL/LEGAL TEAM exists so as not to leave the whole construction of the defense to the lawyers, but rather to construct collective defenses. The IL/LEGAL TEAM stands in solidarity as a matter principle with all acts aimed at destroying all or part of capitalism and its tools.