Article posted online 30 August 2017

From this Monday, August 28, almost two months since the end of the G20, the trials began against the accused persons, all of whom are being held on remand in Hamburg.

Two trials are already over and further court appearances are expected in the coming days.

1st trial (28/08/2017): 2 years and 7 months’ imprisonment for one alleged rioter.

Dutch, 21 years old, he is accused of throwing two bottles at a cop during the “Welcome to Hell” demo of July 6. The charges are “serious assault and battery of a policeman”, “violent disorder” and “rebellion”. The judge hit hard and inflicted a prison sentence of 2 years and 7 months. This sentence goes way beyond the request of the prosecutor, who had asked for one year and nine months.

The judge justified their decision with the new law aimed at strengthening the protection of agents of the State on duty *, which came into force on 30 May 2017.

Many people (families, people close to him and those in solidarity) were present in the courtroom in support of the accused. On another note, the accused chose to remain silent right through the trial, and to cover his face completely in order to avoid the scavengers of the press present in number in the court.

During the deliberations, some reaction from the supporters broke the silence of the courtroom. The father of the accused let go: « they want our son to pay for what happened these four days in Hamburg  ».

The height of ridicule was reached when the “wounded” riot policeman, 30-years-old from Berlin, came to testify stating that, despite the fact that the bottles had touched his leg and head, having felt a shock at the level of his helmet, he had managed to catch up with the alleged launcher and arrested him. He went on to say that, at the time of the arrest, the accused adopted a fetal position, which constitutes an act of resistance.

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A month ago in Hamburg, Germany, a G20 summit was beginning, and with it mass protests against it, with demands for a more ‘human’ running of capitalism, up to the total destruction of the system in order to build a more ethical world where there would be a place and respect for all, where there would be no repression or hierarchy, where the earth would be protected and the insatiable thirst for empty benefits on which this society is based would disappear from our values and life goals.

 You can read about what happened during the 3 days of the summit and the demonstrations in many websites, including this blog, if you look in the corresponding posts (starting from the month of July, for those who are curious); and as I couldn’t go to Hamburg (and I’m sorry about that) for reasons that are irrelevant here, I won’t comment on what happened or go into detail. The comrades who were there have talked about that and continue to do so.

I’d like to talk about a particular aspect of those demonstrations, which I think occurs too often in this kind of context, and which seems a serious problem, at least to me, and one that annoys me. It’s what is known as the ‘tyranny of the image’.

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On the early evening of Thursday August 31st a #noG20 arrestees solidarity demonstration took place in the center of Amsterdam.

Background:

A 21-year old person from Amsterdam has been convicted to two year and seven months in prison. He is accused of having thrown two empty beer bottles at the police after hundreds of riot police blocked and attacked the “Welcome to Hell” demonstration on the evening before the G20 summit in Hamburg last July (see here: https://vimeo.com/224524911).

There was no real evidence against the Dutch comrade. The main proof being two police testimonies that described the individual who threw the bottles as a person with dreadlocks. The 21 year old that was convicted on Monday has no dreadlocks. Another 108 people are currently still awaiting trial, including one 33 year old person from Nijmegen.

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