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Title: Letter from Amfissa prison Author: Ilias Nikolau Date: 2009 Language: en Source: Retrieved on October 6, 2009 from http://www.non-fides.fr/spip.php?article267
In the night of January 13^(th) 2009, an incendiary device, composed of
gas canisters and gasoline, exploded in the entrance of the commissariat
of Evomos (region of Thessalonica), and damaged the windows in the
facade and the ventilation system. Shortly after, the police arrested
the 26 year old anarchist Ilias Nikolau, who does not live far from
there. Ilias was, together with Dimitra Sirianou and Kostakis Halazas,
subject of an arrest warrant for over a year, concerning the same case
as Vaggelis Botzatzis (on the accusation of several arsons). Vaggelis
was released on conditions on October 13^(th) 2008.
On November 14^(th), during the agitations with the hunger strike in
Greek prisons, the 3 others went to the commissariat of Thessalonica,
accompanied by some hundred comrades. The day after, the judge decided
to let them await their trial in freedom. Currently Ilias is accused for
“explosion” (felon), “production” and “accomplishment” (misdemeanours).
Ilias does not acknowledge the accusations, nor admits “having been
caught red handed”. The police raided his parent’s house, the place
where he works, and stormed the house of his grandmother out of the
city. Ilias was brought to the prison of Amfissa, this is a letter he
wrote:
In the morning of January 13^(th) I was arrested in the west of
Thessalonica, on the accusation of an explosion that took place at the
commissariat of the municipal police. This happened a year after, an
incredible accusation was created against me and three of my comrades in
November 2007. That accusation put one of us in prison, and made three
others escape. The witch hunt has started. We have lived through a
considerably warm December and a situation that shows the lack of social
peace clearly. Social peace only lives in the imagination of those that
cannot understand that reality is characterized by a permanent civil
war. With a revolutionary side that rebels against this democratic
monstrosity. Rage replaced fear and instead of approval, negation
appeared. The month of December, as a sign for times to come, made a
very clear devision between those that feed the Power, maintain and
defend it, and those that fight it. Now is not the time to look back in
nostalgia to the ashes that the insurrection left on its path. We have
to understand and express the signs of the present and the future. The
signs that already exist, and those to come. The signs of a relentless
social war. If we want that moments of negation, revolt and dignity are
lived, we have to arm our hands and our desires, determined and
organized. I resist against those who think that manifestations and
pacifist protest will make a difference, because they’re already dead.
They drag their corpses along the streets, in the unions and in the
luxurious offices of their bosses. I take place on the side of those who
are led by dignity and I join with those who feel the unchangeable will
to disrupt and to destroy this enormous cemetery. The prison is an added
step to a rebel. A step towards imprisonment. To all those who think
that they have overcome me, that they have overcome us... For me and my
comrades it works just the other way around! Because as long as there
are prisoners of war, we will continue to struggle.
I send warm and rebellious greetings to my comrades and to
revolutionaries everywhere. Freedom for all prisoners of the revolt.
Freedom for Yiannis Dimitrakis, Polis Georgiadis and Yiorgous
Voutsi-Vogiatzis and all the hostages of democracy.
Ilias Nikolau, Amfissa prison, 19^(th) January 2009