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Posts Tagged ‘Bank Robbery’

A few notes on media and repression (Netherlands)

Wednesday, August 31st, 2016

Via Actforfree:

In the course of awaiting the processes of several anarchists that are accused of having robbed banks in Aachen in 2013 and 2014, the prosecution office of Aachen, Germany, and their obedient voice, the media, use every chance available to advance their investigation. Whether it is on a juridical or a more subtle mediatic level, all these expressions are different tentacles of the same mechanism of repression.

As usual the mainstream media are eager to get a “good” story by all means necessary, pervertedly scrutinizing people’s lives regardless of any ethics. They therefore do not hesitate in aiding the prosecution in spreading their fantastical tales. We have read these without much surprise – this is what journalists do after all –, have watched the hysterical spectacle that is being created around the implicated. Not being surprised however does not mean that we do not feel the need to clarify a few things that may have become blurred in the midst of this incessant stream of written and televised vomit.

After having ejaculated several articles in which the accused were portrayed according to the image the prosecution is trying to spread, the media has now decided it is time to create their own story. A rumour came to us through the grapevine that a certain Dutch journalist has posted a request on Indymedia asking for information concerning one of the accused. (more…)

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Posted in Social Control

Barcelona: Another comrade detained and extradited for the case of bank expropriations in Aachen (Catalunya)

Saturday, August 20th, 2016

Tuesday, June 21 at dawn, the Mossos d’Esquadra Corps [Catalan Police] kicked down the door of the house of an anarchist comrade of Barcelona, where he lived with his companion and other housemates. All were awakened by guns pointed on them and were handcuffed for hours while police raided and devastated the home, located in the neighbourhood del Eixample.

Eventually, the comrade was arrested and transferred to Madrid, where the National Court ordered his detention on the basis of a European arrest warrant issued by the prosecutor of Aachen, accusing him of having participated in the expropriation of a branch of Pax Bank that took place in November 2014.

It is for this same action that the comrade arrested on April 13 in Carmel is also in prison. In this case, however, the police decided not to use the staging and media spectacle it had used during the April operation, not issuing any press release and not notifying the media of the operation.

According to what we have been able to find out, the arrest warrant is based on the supposed coincidence between a trace of genetic material found in the Pax Bank in Aachen and a DNA sample that Mossos had taken from the comrade, simulating a BAC control for alcohol. During this false control, the police got him to blow into a breathalyzer and kept the plastic tip to extract the genetic profile of the comrade from the remaining saliva. (more…)

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Posted in Prison Struggle

Thessaloniki: Solidarity with the anarchist comrades accused of bank robbery in Aachen (Greece)

Monday, July 18th, 2016

Also see this update via Actforfree.

In Thessaloniki posters and flyers are spread with a call out for solidarity with the anarchist comrades accused of bank robbery in Germany. At Kamara there was a banner hung and stencils spayed arround the city with the text ‘Solidarity with the anarchist comrades in jail accused of bank robbery in Germany’.

Here the text of the flyer that was spread in Greek and English:

Solidarity with the anarchist comrades in jail accused of bank robbery in Germany

A call out for active solidarity

On July 6th 2016, an anarchist comrade got arrested in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She is accused of expropriation in Aachen, Germany and is now in jail awaiting extradition to Germany. The week before a comrade from Spain had already been extradited to Germany. We call out to anybody to make actions in solidarity with the imprisoned comrades! We are fucking angry, we want them free!

In the summer of 2015 she already spent 5 months in detention and was released, with all charges dropped and no conditions to her release. The very disappointed prosecution made recourse to the higher court, which granted a trial (date not set yet). In April 2016 a comrade from Barcelona was arrested with similar charges for an expropriation that took place in 2014, by the same prosecution office. She has now been extradited to Germany. (more…)

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Posted in Prison Struggle

Comrade accused in 2013 Aachen bank robbery case arrested in Amsterdam (Netherlands)

Friday, July 8th, 2016

From contra-info:

This morning, 6 July, our anarchist comrade was arrested in Amsterdam by an arrestatieteam. This is in connection to an accusation by the Aachen (DE) prosecution in regards to a bank robbery in 2013. The call for solidarity stands. We are fucking angry.

For more information about this repressive story & updates in dutch, english and german: solidariteit.noblogs.org

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Posted in Prison Struggle

Solidarity actions in The Hague with comrade imprisoned in Spain on charges of expropriation (Netherlands)

Tuesday, July 5th, 2016

See for pictures.

Last Thursday night, June 30th 2016, we carried out actions in solidarity with our comrade who is imprisoned in total isolation in Spain on charges of participation in a bank expropriation in Aachen, Germany two years ago. She is now awaiting extradition to Germany, which will probably happen this week.

In solidarity we spray-painted ‘Freedom for our Spanish comrade’ on the wall of a department of the Spanish embassy in The Hague, the Netherlands and glued the locks.

That same morning during rush hour a banner was hung above the highway, reading: ‘Burn all prisons! Freedom for our Spanish comrade!’

We are not interested in knowing whether the comrade is actually responsible for the bank robberies or not. Expropriation is an ethically just and politically legitimate practice, a method of struggle that is part of the history of all revolutionary movements.

Indeed, despite the constant attempts by Power to reduce this method to within the scope of a ‘common crime’ motivated by individual greed, the fact is that the expropriation of places of accumulation of capital is a constant in our history: from the anarcho-syndicalist groups in the early twentieth century who robbed banks to support strikes or help the families of imprisoned comrades, to the various autonomous groups of the 70s and 80s.

We call out to anybody to take action in solidarity with the comrade imprisoned in Madrid! Immediate freedom for the comrade!

Burn all prisons!

In solidarity,
Some anarchists

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Posted in Direct Action

Words in solidarity with the comrade arrested in Barcelona (Catalunya)

Monday, June 27th, 2016

Every heart is a time bomb

On 13th April 2016 the Mossos d’Esquadra in collaboration with the German police raided three places, two of which were private homes and one was the squat Blokes Fantasma.

The repressive operation concluded with the arrest of our comrade, for whom there was a European arrest warrant after Germany accused her of participating in a bank expropriation in the country in 2014.

The comrade has been held in solitary confinement in the prison of Soto del Real (Madrid) since 14th April and has expressed her opposition to being extradited; but judge Angela Murillo of the fourth section of the Audiencia Nacional gave in (as usual) to the request of the German state and on 26th May she ordered our comrade to be extradited within 10 days, after which she’ll be put in a maximum security prison.

The prosecutor in Aachen (Germany) is the same one that issued a European arrest warrant on 24th June 2015 against a Dutch anarchist comrade, who was arrested on the Greek-Bulgarian border and imprisoned for two months.
She was then extradited to Cologne, where she spent 4 months in jail, also charged with expropriating a German bank in 2013. She was released on bail on 16th December 2015 and is awaiting trial. (more…)

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Posted in Prison Struggle

Update and words from the anarchist comrade threatened with extradition for bank robbery (Spain)

Tuesday, June 14th, 2016

Some days ago, as we had already taken the extradition of the comrade arrested on 13th April for granted, we got news that extradition to Germany would be postponed for a month, a postponement decided by the Audiencia Nacional in response to our lawyer’s request as preparation of her marriage documents had begun before her arrest. As soon as the tribunal’s decision was made known, the comrade was transferred to the women’s prison of Brieva (Avila), from where we thought they were making arrangements for the flight to Germany.

From the prison we received her words, which we are going to publish immediately. At the moment the comrade is being held once again in the prison of Soto del Real (Madrid), in solitary confinement and with the possibility to go to the exercise yard with the other prisoners, at least until 30th June, the day when the delay for the wedding ceremony expires.

In the meantime we are making a callout for solidarity with the comrade in the streets, for support to all imprisoned fighters and for showing deep contempt at the system that keeps them kidnapped in order to defend its miserable order.

Words from the comrade arrested on 13th April:

Comrades, I’m writing from the prison of Brieva, Avila, where I’ve been just taken after a month and a half of imprisonment in Soto del Real, Madrid, always in FIES and solitary confinement. I wanted to write earlier but communications and information are very slow and restricted, so I haven’t done so till now.

I truly appreciate all the gestures and demonstrations of solidarity and support.
(more…)

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Posted in Prison Struggle

Judge Murilla sanctions extradition to Germany of a comrade accused of expropriation (Spain)

Saturday, June 11th, 2016

Angela Murilla, a judge at the Audiencia Nacional, already notorious for her recent involvement in the 12-year sentencing against Francisco and Monica, after trying to inflict a full sentence against her, decided to order the extradition to Germany of the comrade arrested on 13th April accused of participating in the expropriation of a bank in Germany.
German prosecutors accused the comrade of having carried out a string of expropriations against banks. In 10 days it will be known whether the extradition order is enforced.

via actforfree, cna

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Posted in Prison Struggle

Update on Aachen repression (Germany & Spain)

Thursday, April 21st, 2016

In July 2015 our friend and comrade got arrested at a passport control at the Greek-Bulgarian border. The Europe-wide arrest warrant against her had been issued by the prosecution office of Aachen, Germany, on the 24th of June 2015. In Germany she got locked up under the ‘U-haft‘ (Untersuchungshaft) regime in Cologne because of a presumed involvement in an armed bank robbery that had taken place two years earlier (2013). On the 2nd December 2015, after months of investigation the prosecution formally charged her with bank robbery, hostage taking and weapon possession. On the 16th of December, the court called the prison instructing them to release our comrade because all charges were to be dropped, since the “evidence” that months of investigation produced was not sufficient for this case to be brought to court.

When we were writing the above statement concerning the imprisonment and release of our friend, we hoped it would be the last. Unfortunately the German cops did not agree, and decided to appeal against the decision of her release. This resulted in, after first being rejected by the normal court, the higher court’s decision to reopen the case. Concretely this means that, after having spent nearly six months in preventive prison, our friend and comrade is now outside awaiting trial. It is still unclear when the court case will take place. Despite several desperate attempts from the prosecutor’s office to also get a new warrant for her arrest – at the moment we are awaiting the high court’s decision of yet another appeal – she is still outside with us. (more…)

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Posted in Social Control

Communique about the latest repressive operation in Barcelona and in solidarity with the comrade imprisoned in the prison of Soto del Real (Catalunya & Spain)

Monday, April 18th, 2016

On Wednesday April 13 at 5am an operation of the Mossos d’Esquadra [Catalan Police] began in which two private homes and a squat in the neighbourhood of La Salut, the “Blokes Fantasma” were raided and the twenty or so people living in the building were detained for twelve hours.

In addition to the looting and destruction that accompanies any police search, the operation resulted in the arrest of a comrade who had already been imprisoned within the framework of the Pandora Operation, and for whom since 11 April there was a European arrest warrant on charges of participation in bank expropriations in Germany.
After her transfer to the Spanish National Court, judge Eloy Velasco ordered preventive detention for our comrade, who has been transferred to the prison of Soto del Real.

As she is also charged in the Pandora trial (currently under instruction) and that she herself has expressed her desire not be extradited, our defence has called for a “conditioning” of the European extradition order, claiming that she be held in custody in the Spanish State until the trial pending here is held. Within a maximum period of 2 months (extendable for another month), the High Court would have to decide whether the handing over of our comrade to the German authorities can be temporarily suspended or not. From the German press we learned that she has been linked to an expropriation that occurred two years ago in the town of Aachen, during which, again according to the press, the assailant group took a significant amount of money from the bank without causing any injuries or personal damage. (more…)

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Posted in Social Control

Anonymous letter from inside prison (Germany)

Thursday, November 26th, 2015

via Contra-Info:

Our friend and comrade has been in prison for over 4 months now and is currently being held in “Untersuchungshaft” in Germany. Here are a few words that reached us from the dungeons.

With midnight always in one’s heart,

And twilight in one’s cell,

We turn the crank, or tear the rope,

Each in his separate Hell,

And the silence is more awful far

Than the sound of a brazen bell.

After having been arrested and taken to prison in a small border town somewhere in South-Eastern Europe, and having had the “pleasure” of spending three weeks in its state-hotels, I now find myself in the claws of the German state. At the moment of writing I still do not know when I will be free again; no “official” accusation has been sent, no court date has been set. In theory, “U-haft” can take up to six months- depending on the wishes and whims of prosecutors and judges however this period can be extended. So far i have not been wrecking my head over it too much. The insecurity of not knowing what will happen next, or when, is one of the more difficult things in this situation, but i refuse to torture myself with questions that for now remain unanswerable. Whatever is to come, I will face it with my head held high. (more…)

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Posted in Prison Struggle

Solidarity Poster from Thessaloniki about the appellate court of comrades G.Naxakis and G.Sarafoudis (Greece)

Thursday, October 15th, 2015

Via ActforFree:

“… In many languages, idioms, symbols, we refer to those missing. And
every sorrow and every rage acquires a name, a face, a history, a void
that hurts and shames.
The world and its history is full of absences. And absences become a
mumble, a powerful word, a cry or a scream.
We do not scream for repentance. We do not cry for mercy. We do not
complain about resignation.
We do these things in order for those who are missing to be able to find
their way back. So they know that they are here, even if they are
missing. So they do not forget that we do not forget, we always
remember.
This is the reason for resistance. For insurrection. Because the moment
will come, where those who owe us everything, will pay.
Whoever persecutes will pay, whoever imprisons will pay, whoever hits
and tortures will pay.
Because the system that created, nurtured, protected and with which it
covered crimes, dressed like a bad government, will be destroyed. It
will not be beautified, it will not be reformed, and it will not be
modernized. It will be demolished, it will be destroyed, it will end,
and it will be buried.
This is why are message is not one of those, that aims at the comforting
of those who suffer because of one or many absences.
Because we know the same sorrow. Because we have the same rage in our
guts. Because given that we are different, we become the same.
This is the reason of our resistance, the reason for our insurrection.
For the sorrow and rage.
This is why:
Do not hesitate. Do not sell out. Do not surrender… ”
The communities of the oppressed who fight are without their hostage
fighters.

SOLIDARITY WITH ANARCHISTS GIANNIS NAXAKIS AND GRIGORIS SARAFOUDIS who
are tried in the appellate court for a bank robbery with DNA samples as
the only evidence.
AND WITH ALL HOSTAGE REVOLUTIONARIES

Comrades,
Manuscripts from the Absolute

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Posted in Prison Struggle

Political statement of anarchist comrade Andreas-Dimitris Bourzoukos, in the trial for the Velvento, Kozani double bank robbery case (Greece)

Tuesday, October 7th, 2014

Background: Text by the 4 arrested anarchists concerning the double robbery in Velvento, Kozani + Anarchists sentenced for the double bank robbery in Velvento + Letter from Argyris Ntalios & Fivos Harisis

via actforfree:

31/7/14

Comrade A.D. Bourzoukos made his political statement today. Comrades D.Politis, G.Mihailidis, F.Harisis and A.Dalios were also present in the court room.

To begin, I would like to clarify the reason I am here today, by taking advantage of the procedure of statements. What will follow therefore, will in no way have an apologetic character, since my acts and choices are included in the wider anarchist struggle, the struggle for life and freedom. Consequently, they are acts that I support with every aspect of my being and I will continue to do so as long as this world remains as it is.

So, no, I am not apologizing, I have to nothing to say and analyse on a procedural level about my actions. I refuse the charges exactly because I refuse civil legality. I refuse to legitimize your role and your justice which is driven and instructed by those governing.

I therefore do not hope for your leniency, I will not bend before the threat of your laws and the many years of prison that await me, even in the worst of conditions that your state reserves for those who refuse to bow their head. These new prisons called “C- Type prisons”. I am here to highlight the characteristics of my choices and exacerbate the dispute between us. You, a part of the judicial authority, and me, a part of the anarchist struggle. And when I say “you”, I do not mean just you specifically, but all the people who hold positions of authority. It is a dispute that escapes the narrow frames of a inter-personal clash, it is a class and social war that spreads in the space-time continuum, it finds its roots in the initial forms of capitalism and the relations of exploitation and authority which for centuries now have defined the human race. (more…)

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Posted in Prison Struggle

Anarchists sentenced for the double bank robbery in Velvento (Greece)

Friday, October 3rd, 2014

On Wednesday, October 1st, 2014, the Korydallos prison court in Athens found anarchist prisoners Yannis Michailidis, Nikos Romanos, Andreas-Dimitris Bourzoukos and Dimitris Politis (who have claimed political responsibility for the double armed robbery in Velventos, Kozani) as well as Fivos Harisis and Argyris Ntalios (who have denied all charges) guilty of:

– committing robbery while masked or disguised (except Dimitris Politis, who was convicted as an accessory),
– aggravated possession of firearms (for the guns used in the double expropriation),
– aggravated vehicle theft (for the car of the dentist-hostage used as getaway vehicle).

Many individuals gathered in the special court room of Korydallos prison to show their solidarity with the comrades who were being sentenced.

After the counting and merging of the sentences, the terror court decided:

Yannis Michailidiss: 16 years, 4 months and 10 days.
Nikos Romanos: 15 years and 10 months.
Andreas-Dimitris Bourzoukos, Fivos Harisis, Argyris Ntalios: 15 years and 11 months.
Dimitris Politis: 11 years and 5 months.

All comrades were acquitted of the charge of participation in the CCF. However, there are other trial court cases underway that include the exact same accusation against the anarchist comrades.

Anarchist comrade Nikos Romanos was recently transferred to the Korydallos prison:

Nikos Romanos
Dikastiki Filaki Koridallou- E Pteryga
T.K. 1811O
Korydallos
Athens
Greece

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Posted in Prison Struggle

The Story of a Bank Robbery – About the case of Giannis Dimitrakis (Greece)

Tuesday, September 16th, 2014

via instinto salvaje…

PDF: The Story of a Bank Robbery – About Giannis Dimitrakis (Into Rebellion / EE)

Anarchist Giannis Dimitrakis was arrested heavily wounded after a robbery at a branch of the National Bank in the center of Athens, on January 16th, 2006. Giannis was released in 2012.

Counter-info site Instinto Salvaje re-released the solidarity video for Dimitrakis, with French and Spanish versions. The video showcases the media-terror spectacle that rises whenever the system of order is threatened. We post this video in our library archive. Capitalists are the thieves and terrorists.

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Posted in Library