Greece: anarchists sent down for Velvento double bank robbery

Last Wednesday (1 October) an Athens prison court convicted seven people for robbing two banks in Velvento in February 2013, and handed down sentences of up to 16 years and 4 months. Five of the prisoners declared themselves responsible for the robberies, claiming them as political actions. The other two denied the charges. The case became particularly high profile in Greece last year after the cops released crudely photoshopped photos of the prisoners to cover up the signs of the beatings they gave them. Solidarity gatherings and actions have been held across Greece and internationally.

We repost excerpts from a solidarity pamphlet on the robbery and the court case, translated into English by resistra. Check that out for the full texts of statements made by the comrades. Then we repost the latest update from Wednesday’s court, from 325.

See also this text written by four of the comrades about the bank robbery.

velvento_eng_1

From Resistra pamphlet:

On Friday February 1, 2013, a double robbery took place at the local branch of the Agricultural Bank of Greece and the Hellenic Post office in Velvento, Kozani, Greece. Following a mass police mobilization in the whole area, one person was detained in the surroundings of Ptolemaida, and three more were arrested later on during a police chase operation.

From the outset of their arrest the four detainees – G. Mihailidis, D. Politis, N. Romanos and A.D Βourzoukos – declared themselves to be anarchists. The comrades were forced to stop a passing vehicle in their attempt to escape during the police chase. They avoided armed confrontation with their pursuers so as not to jeopardise the driver’s life.

After their arrest, the comrades were transferred to the Veria police headquarters where they were brutally tortured for hours by local cops. The next day, the police authorities of Greece released deliberately and miserably photoshopped photos of the abused comrades. It was cynically stated that photo airbrushing was necessary in order for the faces of the arrested to be recognisable to the public and thus facilitate the investigations of police authorities. That cynical statement was followed by the absurd allegation that the injuries of the arrested anarchists were sustained during their arrest and not while in custody.

From the beginning, the comrades maintained a decent and dignified political stance and supported the option of bank robbery, not as an act of personal enrichment, but as part of their subversive political beliefs and action. Due to their political stance, numerous solidarity actions took place within the wider anarchist/antiauthoritarian movement. In almost every Greek city solidarity actions took place, ​​ranging from the use of banners and public speak-outs with informative interventions in central parts of the cities to more radical actions. Immediately, a solidarity gathering took place at Kozani’s courthouse, while it was being decided whether the four would be held in custody or not. On February 23, 2013 a demonstration of more than 400 comrades from various Greek towns took place in Veria (a neighbouring town). The climate of fear and intimidation that was imposed in Veria in the days preceding the solidarity demonstration was unprecedented. Traffic in the city centre was halted and the repressive forces blocked the main streets, patrolling the town in a military manner.

Further solidarity gatherings outside the prisons and the appeal court followed, as well as the use of public speak-outs with informative interventions in central parts of the cities, events and a wide range of diverse actions, both in Greece and abroad.

In the next few days, the police issued two arrest warrants for two anarchist comrades, mislabelling them via the media circus acting as courts as the ones who escaped arrest in Velvento by using the car of the passing driver.

On April 30, 2013 and after massive sweeping arrests against anarchists in New Philadelphia district, Argiris Dalios and Fivos Harisis were arrested and charged with involvement in Velvento’s expropriation.

Short excerpt from this text“>the text written by the first four arrested anarchists:

“Kids from next door and they attack a bank. Why?”

Because robbery is a consciously political act. It does not comprise the next level of a restless adolescent period, aspirations for personal wealth, nor of course is it a result of our supposed laziness. Yet it includes the desire not to bind our lives to the brutal exploitation of waged labour. Our refusal to become gears for financial interests. Our resistance against the charging ahead of mental and value bankruptcy of their world.

It is clear for us that we do not negate creativity within our communities. After all, putting together a robbery requires mental and physical labour. Yet we refuse to enslave our creativity to the world of production and reproduction of labour. Of course, for us the negation of waged slavery would hold little meaning if we did not at the same time act toward its destruction. We are remorseless anarchists and we do not seek sympathy, compassion or understanding because we acted “wrong” in a “wrong” world. We seek the spread of our values and practices and we will fight for this until our last word, until our last bullet.

Letter from six of the prisoners after the start of the court case:

It is definitely good and at the same time necessary to constantly seek words to interpret and analyse the deeper meaning of solidarity.

What we experienced on the 29th November in the courtroom is the materiality of our imperatives and our “dreams”. Any effort to express and “engage” all our emotions, all our strength, in written form is doomed to mediocrity. We will never be able – not us at least – to describe in words the feeling of realising of our strongest desires. Words that one way or another, rightly or wrongly, entail the dullness of an unfree world.

After several months of physical isolation, the presence of comrades and the intensity with which we shared hugs and looks, gave as the feeling/image of two flooded rivers meeting immediately after the destruction of a dam.

This, comrades, the breaking of isolation, imaginary and real, is a bet we won in here.

Yes, solidarity is one of our weapons. And no cop will ever succeed in finding the “lair” in which we are hiding this weapon.

P.S: The reason for writing this text was the first day at the court; however, every slogan chanted, every banner, every poster, every arson, every solidarity action, fills us with strength in exactly the same way.

Together until the destruction of this rotten world
Together until freedom

The anarchists: Nikos Romanos, Fivos Harisis, Argiris Dalios,
Andreas Dimitris Bourzoukos, Dimitris Politis, Giannis Mihailidis

Latest news:

Anarchists sentenced for the double bank robbery in Velvento (Greece)

On Wednesday, October 1st, 2014, the Korydallos prison court in Athens found anarchist prisoners Yannis Michailidis, Nikos Romanos, Andreas-Dimitris Bourzoukos and Dimitris Politis (who have claimed political responsibility for the double armed robbery in Velventos, Kozani) as well as Fivos Harisis and Argyris Ntalios (who have denied all charges) guilty of:

– committing robbery while masked or disguised (except Dimitris Politis, who was convicted as an accessory),
– aggravated possession of firearms (for the guns used in the double expropriation),
– aggravated vehicle theft (for the car of the dentist-hostage used as getaway vehicle).

Many individuals gathered in the special court room of Korydallos prison to show their solidarity with the comrades who were being sentenced.

After the counting and merging of the sentences, the terror court decided:

Yannis Michailidiss: 16 years, 4 months and 10 days.
Nikos Romanos: 15 years and 10 months.
Andreas-Dimitris Bourzoukos, Fivos Harisis, Argyris Ntalios: 15 years and 11 months.
Dimitris Politis: 11 years and 5 months.

All comrades were acquitted of the charge of participation in the CCF. However, there are other trial court cases underway that include the exact same accusation against the anarchist comrades.

Anarchist comrade Nikos Romanos was recently transferred to the Korydallos prison:

Nikos Romanos
Dikastiki Filaki Koridallou- E Pteryga
T.K. 1811O
Korydallos
Athens
Greece

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