Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Thessaloniki 4 trial, update day #6

thessalonikisolidarity@gmail.com (thessaloniki solidarity campaign) | 29.01.2011 14:22 | London

Update from day #6 of the Court of Appeals of our four comrades in Thessaloniki, Greece. The prosecutor explained the basis of the laws under which the four defendants are accused and his opinion on which charges should be pursued. Defence lawyers gave their summing up of the cases. The plan was for the trial to end today... Background information at http://www.salonikisolidarity.org.uk

For previous court reports, see:
Day 1: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/6948
Day 2: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/6957
Day 3: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/7001
Days 4-5: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/7102

Wednesday 26 January 2011, 9am, Thessaloniki Courthouse.

With the prosecution having been completed and the defence witnesses rather hastily examined, it was now the job of the prosecutor to outline the reasoning of the laws being used to charge the defendants.

The charges were: causing explosions with the intent to endanger human life, possession of materials or devices designed to cause explosions. The point here is that possession can be proven even if the explosives were in your possession for a second. Causing explosions was intricately linked to possession, ie, you had to possess in order to cause, though they stood as separate charges. Combining the act of possession and causation created the offence of 'Distinguished riot'.

So far so good. Or bad, depending on how you look at it.

He outlined what had happened in Genoa in 2001, and the expectation of trouble at the June 2003 EU summit in Thessaloniki. The 'Black Bloc' was expected to be present, and would be prepared, armed with a variety of weapons with the intent to endanger life and property in defiance of authority. In the event, shops, cars and offices were attacked, damaged or burnt. 8 police were injured.

For Michalis, he demanded that he be convicted of causing continuous explosions - more serious than causing a single explosion. He could not believe that policeman today could be either mistaken in identification or be lying: if the cops had wanted to fabricate evidence they would have used more than one police witness against Michalis. He concluded that the decision of the first trial was correct and that Michalis should be convicted of causing continuous explosions, possession of explosives and distinguished riot.

For Kastro, he said that he had thrown 10 molotovs, though without endangering life. In that sense, the causation charge was dropped but he demanded prosecution for possession of explosives, and of distinguished riot.

For Fernando, both the possession and use of explosives was not proven due to doubts about identification and the unreliability of the police witnesses. He requested that all charges against Fernando be dropped.

For Simon, he was satisfied that he had caused one single explosion with intent to endanger life (in the first trial it had been continuous explosions), that the possession of 7 molotovs was proven by 9 witnesses against him, and he could not believe that 9 cops would all be lying. He concluded that he may well have been beaten, but these two charges combined created the third charge of distinguished riot.

After a break, 5 of the lawyers made their closing speeches in favour of their clients and as part of the broader picture that united all the cases. However, as the clock ticked towards 15.00, Bakkellas, the lawyer for Simon, asked that he delay his summing up as there would not be time before the usual end of court business at 15.30. The judges wanted him to go ahead and run over if necessary, and there was a certain amount of shouting. Also, the clerk of the court pointed out that she didn't want it to overrun as she was not going to be paid overtime.

One of the three judges was already booked for another trial Thursday, and Friday was going to be another strike day for the lawyers' union. So the presentation of Bakkellas' summing up was delayed to be heard on Monday morning, 31 January 2011. The judges would then retire to deliberate and hopefully deliver their verdict later that day.

Court ended 15.30 GMT+2

 

++ Spread the word

Please link to the Campaign's website on your web sites, forums, blogs, facebook profiles etc, tell friends and family and help to spread the word.

Join and share the facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Justice-For-Simon-Chapman-and-the-Thessaloniki-4/113450595384764

or join and share the facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=150278698345263

Solidarity for the Thessaloniki 4!
http://www.salonikisolidarity.org.uk/

Films on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheThessaloniki4

 


thessalonikisolidarity@gmail.com (thessaloniki solidarity campaign)
- Original article on IMC London: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/7103

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech