updates by comrades from flyingtheory.squat.gr
Since Tuesday, May 8th, anarchist comrade Rami Syrianos abstains from prison food in Nigrita prisons (near Serres, northern Greece), demanding his exit from the solitary confinement cell, where he was placed one month and a half ago, awaiting the implementation of a disciplinary prison transfer that has been imposed on him since March 28th. Within the next few days, Rami will release a text, which could not be published yet due to the restricted communication with him.
His trial is on schedule for May 21st, 2012, in the courts of Thessaloniki, after three consecutive postponements.
Rami is being held for over a month (since March 28th) in solitary confinement of Nigrita prisons, and specifically in the ‘newcomers’ cells’. After the latest postponement of his trial—for which he was moved in the morning of March 26th to the courts of Thessaloniki and was turned back the same day to Nigrita prisons—he denied once again the humiliating process of body search (the prisoners are supposed to take off their underwear and cough while bending, etc.). Subsequently, the next day Rami was taken to the prosecutor, who ordered the penalty of ‘disciplinary prison transfer’ against him on March 28th.
Our comrade is being isolated from the prisons’ wings ever since, incarcerated in one of the so-called newcomers’ cells. Regardless of their name, the particular spaces are not at all different than the typical solitary confinement cells: spaces made for the ones that arrive to any prison for a first time, as well as for those coming back from an ‘exit permission’ (a temporary leave from prison). Rami is isolated from all the common-used spaces, without any yard time; in our comrade’s case, he’s permitted to have a walk of half an hour in a corridor in order to make one or two phone calls per day.
We should note (speaking in the State’s own terms) that the maximum disciplinary isolation penalty that someone could get cannot overpass 10 days. We note this not to denounce just another ‘irregularity’ of the prison system, which on its own basis consists anyway probably the worst irrationalism of the human existence, but to let one of its largest aspects be shown. Apart of depriving ‘freedom,’ along with the physical restriction, the constant control and supervision, incarceration is more about the suppression of prisoners’ dignity. When all the previous are not enough to achieve this, the system needs to invent other ways…
And while Rami Syrianos remains isolated for over a month, waiting for the prison transfer that was imposed on him, his lawyer was informed on April 27th through the ministry of Justice that the disciplinary decision has not yet been sent to the ministry, obviously not by any mistake, meaning that his ‘accommodation’ in Nigrita prisons under solitary confinement is being extended.
Let us remind that Rami had launched prison food abstention again on April 11th, in solidarity with the imprisoned hunger strikers Alexandros Mitroussias, Kostas Sakkas and Giorgos Karagiannidis, as well as the members of the R.O. CCF who were on hunger strike demanding the definite transfer of Panagiotis Argirou and Gerasimos Tsakalos from Domokos prisons. Thus, Rami had rejected prison food for 20 whole days—until the end of the CCF members’ hunger strike (30/4)—and he is now conducting similar protest.
We would like to mention the fact that another dignified prisoner, C.D., was the only one from the entire 2nd wing of Nigrita prisons who started a trolley-food denial in solidarity with Rami Syrianos’ situation, a denial that started since the very first day of Rami’s penalty and that is being continued. C.D. has not only abstained from prison food, but also denied entering inside his cell on April 14th, protesting Rami’s absence from the common-used spaces of the prison. C.D. was obliged to spend a night in isolation and threatened to receive a disciplinary penalty as well, a threat that was not realized.
Neither criminal, nor political prisoners; fire and blast for every prison
Always by the side of those who choose to walk in life with dignity
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