Update on anarchist comrade Simos Seisidis (Greece)

NEWS for anarchist comrade Simos Seisidis. From the court, relating to incidents in Petras Theatre, Athens, in 2000 and the forensic report following his arrest, concerning his wounding from behind by a cop, and subsequent amputation of his leg.

On Friday 18 / 2 the trial started about the incidents in the Rage Against The Machine concert in theatre of Petras in the summer of 2000 in Athens. It was interrupted, and was finalized on Friday 25 / 2. Simos Seisidis was acquitted of all charges by a vote of 7- 0 to the line of the prosecutor’s proposal.

He belonged to the group of six anarchists whose names were given by the media and two police officers as ringleaders of the attacks. In the trials that followed the police retracted their statements, as happened now with one of the two cops that appeared in court. Like the other comrades before, so also for Simos, the charges were dropped. He did not appear in court this time, sending a short text protesting against the way he was transferred, stating that it is not fit for human or animal.

At the same time yesterday his lawyer finally received the forensic report ordered concerning his amputated leg nine months ago. The forensic report confirms our claims FULLY. Simos was shot from behind while running, once from the bottom up, which proves that the cop that shot him was crouching behind a car when the shooting took place. The amputation was the result of complications due to poly-traumatic injuries from machine gun fire (conclusion of the histological examination).

Remember, Simos is on remand on charges of attempted murder arising from that incident …

Solidarity actions coming for comrade Simos Seisidis who is to be tried in 30 / 3 for the robbery of the National Bank in Solonos Street in Athens in January 2006, Giannis Dimitrakis case.

Simos Seisidis is an anarchist arrested on May 3d 2010 by cops in Athens. Simos has had a price on his head for a long time, accused of being a member of the so-called “robbers in black” (oi listes me ta maura) who were, allegedly, a group to which imprisoned anarchist Giannis Dimitrakis also belonged to.

On Friday, May 28th 2010 it was announced that his health condition worsened rapidly and that Simos had an emergency operation and had his leg amputated.

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SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON

(extracts from two different texts, published in Anarchist Bulletin, no 7, September 2000)

Dozens of people arrested the night of “Rage Against the Machine” concert that took place in June, after riots outside the concert and clashes between groups of youth and the police forces. The police suffocated the area with use of tear-gas, but didn’t manage to catch anyone. After the concert finished and about 8000 people started leaving, riot and security police ranged themselves out all the way, so that people had to pass through them. That’s when they began making arrests, choosing who will they present as suspect. About 20 of the young people arrested, after beaten up in the Public Security (police hq), were taken to the public prosecutor and charged for felonies. They were temporarily released on bail and on terms, except from two of them, V. Panousis and K. Nikolaidis, who were judged as “especially dangerous” to be set free (also they are now released). The lack of any evidence was “covered” by “identifications” by the cops themselves. The real reason they chose them is their attitude towards the authorities and their police criminal record, rather than any proved relation with the riots.

The repressive operations and the machinations of state authorities continued against the anarchists. One day after the RATM concert, in June 15, the police announced that 6 more persons are wanted for participating in the riots, according to testimonies of two cops who were supposed to have “identified” them. Not accidentally, all the six of them are active anti-authoritarians and anarchists, known to the police as such. Among those six persons, there was comrade Simos Seisidis, a permanent target for the persecuting authorities during the last years. He was arrested and released on terms and on bail as well as the other five comrades.

But Simos didn’t stop being a target for the police machinations and very soon, in the 1st of August, as he was going to the police station to report himself according to the terms of his release, he was arrested again. This time for… bank robbery, with the evidence that his fingerprint “was found in a plastic bag 500 metres from the bank” !

The police report mentions that “the robbery that took place in ALPHA BANK, in the 29 of June, was committed by two unknown persons”. Without presenting any other evidence, they continue their report saying that “Seisidis, born in Athens in 1976, has been arrested in the past, repeatedly, with charges of ‘property destruction’, ‘arsons’, ‘possession of explosive bombs’.”

So, Simos, is going to prison for a robbery “committed by two unknown persons”, with the evidence of a fingerprint that the police “found” in a bag, and for being branded as anarchist.

We should remind that Simos had been arrested for first time in Feb. 1995, accused with three other persons for attempt to arson in a car for press distribution. He had then stayed two months in a prison for minors, and the police had taken the chance to blame him, while in prison, for three more arsons that were committed in 1994!

He was arrested again, along with 504 more persons, in 17th November 1995, after the police invaded the Polytechnic School which had been occupied as an act of solidarity with the prisoners’ revolt in Koridalos and with anarchist prisoners who were then on hunger strike.

WE WILL NOT HUSH AND WE WON’T LEAVE ANY COMRADE ALONE IN THE REPRESSIVE OPERATIONS AND THE MACHINATIONS OF THE STATE

FREEDOM TO ANARCHIST SIMOS SEISIDIS
FREEDOM TO ALL IMPRISONED FIGHTERS

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