Greek prisons: Anarchist Andrzej Mazurek, who had been the last prisoner of the December 2008 revolt, was extradited to Poland

Solidarity text by fellow prisoners in Greece

On December 7th, 2012 the last piece of criminal prosecution reserved by the Greek State against the anarchist Andrzej Mazurek was unfolded. Andrzej was arrested in December 2008 for his involvement in the revolt. After four years of incarceration in the Greek prisons, the Greek and Polish authorities have demonstrated remarkable zeal in respective procedures and delivered him to Poland, where he will be held captive as he was found guilty on charges that arose only after his arrest in Athens.

These four years of the comrade’s imprisonment are a practical application of the anti-insurrectional doctrine which the Greek State adopted after the explosive December ’08. The time Andrzej spent in prison was disproportionate in terms of his sentence (which went down to eight years’ imprisonment ever since the ruling of the Court of Appeals) but also compared with the rest of prison sentences that had been imposed and served by participants in the riots. However, this fact also reveals the ardent pursuit of Power to send a clear message both within and outside its territories. Who can ever forget the proclamations of the governmental and journalistic cesspool regarding ‘anarchists who are coming from Europe to destroy Greece,’ statements expressing fear but also a will to crush the international solidarity that had been developed.

Simultaneously, the story of prosecution against Andrzej—which resulted in his extradition by summary procedure—demonstrates the transnational repressive consistency towards the enemy within. At the same time that foreigners remain in some prison or detention centre month after month, awaiting deportation upon the expiry of their sentences, the Polish and Greek authorities have managed to prolong Andrzej’s incarceration following an express procedure. By denying him the first request for conditional release—despite the fact that he had by far completed 2/5 of his sentence—they gnawed at week after week in order to make all necessary steps so that he would not be released from prison even for a single day.

We send him our solidarity and comradely regards to Poland, where he is now a hostage, and repeat his own words:

See you around on the streets, to shatter once again the storefront of social peace…

We cannot leave any comrade alone in the hands of repressive mechanisms

SOLIDARITY WITH ANDRZEJ MAZUREK

Greek prisons’ inmates:
Babis Tsilianidis, Alexandros Mitroussias, Kostas Sakkas, Giorgos Karagiannidis, Akim Markegai, Vasilis Karandreas, Nikos Evangelou, Panagiotis Koutsopoulos, Nikos Sakkas, Kostas Faltsetas, Elias Karadouman, Marinos Mitsopoulos, Dimitris Giotsas, Charalambos Avramidis, Panagiotis Georgakopoulos, Christos Tsonaros, Yannis Gelitsas, Makis Gerakis, Ergün Mustafa, Michalis Ramadanoglou, Michail Tzoumas, Konstantinos Mamoutis, Vangelis Kalamaras, Panagiotis Hadjigeorgiou, Mitev Georgi, Georgiev Rishi, Angelos Kostopoulos, Spyros Stratoulis, Rami Syrianos

Greek original / related texts in Polish