Greece: Freedom for anarchist André Mazurek, 3.5 years imprisoned after a frame-up trial

André was one of the thousands of rebellious participants in the December ’08 uprising. The date of his appeal trial is approaching.

Monday, 11th of June 2012, Court of Appeals, Loukareos Street, Athens
Call for morning gathering in solidarity with André, last prisoner of the December ’08 uprising

Here Andrzej himself presents a number of circumstances that led to his arrest and imprisonment (Polish original)

Solidarity poster in Polish

Current prison address:
Αντρέ Μαζούρεκ/André Mazurek
Filaki Larissas, B Pteriga (Larissa Prison, 2nd Wing)
Larissa 21110, Ελλάδα/Greece

Another update (in Greek): Letter of Rami Syrianos, Spyros Stratoulis, Dan Carabulea, Giorgos Karagiannidis from Larissa men’s prison (on June 4th, at noon, there was also an intervention outside the prison walls by various groups of supporters), in solidarity with Andrzej

Monday, June 4th, 2012

December 9th, 2008, amid widespread revolt that had raged for three days already, in the area around the Polytechnic School (close to Exarchia, in downtown Athens) police detained five people, strangers to each other, people who ‘relished’ the beatings and humiliations that the uniformed pigs reserved for anyone who fell into their hands in those days, and were then transferred into the detention rooms of GADA (Athens police headquarters). Two days later, they were brought before the interrogator, where it was announced to them (in Greek) that they will be indicted for attempted murder, possession and manufacture of explosives, causing explosion, and even more charges. They were summarily ordered to be remanded in custody, thus adding their names to the hundreds of other names of people who were sent in prison because of clashes on the streets that lasted for many days. Of the five arrested, the four were released from prison a few months later, while the fifth man, Andrzej Mazurek (an immigrant from Poland), was held in pretrial detention because, unlike the others, he admitted his participation in the protests. A year later, on January 16th, 2010, the first-instance trial in this case was yet another typical example of court hearings against arrestees of December ’08, with total absence of any evidence and contradictory perjuries by thugs of anti-riot police forces. The three were acquitted, while both Andrzej and the fourth co-accused received a sentence of 7 years’ incarceration and 55 months’ imprisonment —which had suspensive effect upon the latter defendant. Andrzej has remained in prison ever since.

Three and a half years later, democracy has not forgotten the deep cut that December ’08 has left on its face. At the same time that the system is being coarsened and fortified to address the instability within its interior, the mechanisms of bourgeois justice put their revenge into practice against those who cracked the fake image of social peace with their rage during the uprising. The case of Andrzej epitomizes this vindictive strategy of democracy, while it is also an implementation scope of the transnational repressive interlocking towards the enemy within. The fact that Andrzej clearly stated his conscious participation in the demonstrations, but also that he was known to the Polish authorities for his subversive action, placed him in a very specific position against the law enforcement mechanisms, a position kept in store especially for people who put themselves in confrontational orbit with the dominant edifice of barbarity. From the first moment of his arrest the Greek and Polish authorities, cooperating with each other in good faith, arranged the harshest possible conviction for Andrzej as an exemplary measure for those who would dare to act in the same way in future, by distorting his initial testimonies (what was easy, because he did not speak Greek, and the interpreter who took over his case had been mandated by the Polish consulate and was well-known as minion of the Greek police), adding further charges to the indictment and finally imposing him a very heavy sentence, which has resulted in his incarceration for over 3.5 years in the democracy’s cells. In addition, when he was already in prison, an arrest warrant of unknown content was issued against him in Poland, where the regime’s media ‘described’ him as perpetrator of arsons.

The appeals court for the December ’08 riots has been set for June 11th, 2012, in the Mixed Jury Court of Appeals on Loukareos Street.

We do not leave any comrade alone in the State’s hands; and we express our solidarity with anarchist Andrzej Mazurek.

Furthermore, we do not forget that the murderer Saraliotis has been freed since early October 2011, after his symbolic temporary and privileged stay in prison; and we remind him that things come around…

IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF ANDRZEJ MAZUREK

The prisoners of the 2nd wing of Larissa prison,
Rami Syrianos
Spyros Stratoulis
Dan Carabulea
Giorgos Karagiannidis