It is a longstanding as well as an infamous tactic of the State — particularly of the police-judicial mechanism — to use fabricated charges against relatives so as to hold them hostage and put pressure on fighters and political prisoners. It was done in 2002 [against Angeliki Sotiropoulou, wife of 17N prisoner Dimitris Koufontinas], it was done in 2010 [against Marie Beraha, wife of Revolutionary Struggle prisoner Kostas Gournas], and it was done again in March 2015 [against Evi Statiri, wife of CCF prisoner Gerasimos Tsakalos, but also against Athena Tsakalou, mother of the Tsakalos brothers]. This is because the repressive policy applied against imprisoned members of armed organisations is an ongoing process of political extermination by any means.
After its capitulation on February 20th, the SYRIZA-led government was faced with the first class confrontation — that is, the hunger strike of political prisoners during Spring — and was compelled to vote favorably — among others – on an amendment that theoretically opened the way for the relatives of CCF members to be released. Today, after being refused her liberation six times by judicial councils, Evi Statiri, companion of an imprisoned member of the organisation, is still in prison. Her case is the clearest proof, not only of the acceptance of a state of emergency surrounding the memorandum by the government of the Left, but also of the strict application of a state of exception for political prisoners.
For those in society who had the clarity and determination to approach the ‘no’ vote in the referendum in a class manner and to oppose every memorandum, though without being able to take the next step forward, the question of an alternative way other than the one of delegation or relinquishment, which all the bourgeois parliamentary forces are charting, is more pressing than ever. And this is no other way than struggle and solidarity. Evi’s way…
SOLIDARITY WITH EVI STATIRI
on hunger strike since September 14th 2015