The ghosts of summit-protests-past: Seeking justice after Genoa at the Grassroots Gathering

by Sina - Orgasan Sat Jun 07, 2008 06:58 uriohau at gmail dot com

Kia Ora

I am Sina Brown-Davis one of the 13 Defendants that are facing trial in Melbourne next year as a result of overblown charges relating to the protests against the g20 meeting in Melbourne 06.

Love and Solidarity

Kia Kaha
(stay strong)

In November 2006, people took to the streets of Melbourne to confront the G20, a meeting of the world’s most powerful finance ministers whose policies perpetrate suffering and violence in countless communities around the world every day. Since that protest, Victorian and Federal police have carried out a vast operation of surveillance and arrests, raiding houses at dawn and slapping protestors with ludicrous charges and repressive bail conditions. This is a campaign of intimidation and part of an attempt to criminalise protest. The legal process for those charged after the G20 protests moves slowly on. There have been a few developments this month.

Akin Sari sentenced

Akin Sari was sentenced to 28 months gaol with a minimum non-parole period of 14 months. Judge Punshon also ordered him to pay $8 310 for damaged to a police van.

Akin pleaded guilty to 9 charges including riot, assault and aggravated burglary. Amongst the general media hysteria about the G20 protests, Akin has been singled out for specialcondemnation and racist vilification. Arrested on November 19, the day after the street protests, he was initially denied bail for a number of weeks. Bail was eventually granted, but was revoked when he breached his reporting conditions and travelled to Sydney. He has spent roughly 7 months locked up already, so he will spend at least another 7 months behind bars.

Akin Sari has been moved to Barwon Prison. Harder for people to visit. New postal address:
Locked Bag 7, Lara VIC 3212.

Make sure you put a return name and address or it won’t be accepted.

Committal Hearing Continues

The committal hearing for the remaining G20 defendants going through adult court began on February 18. During the hearing, 10 people agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges, leaving 13 people still going through the hearing. In a committal hearing the prosecution has to prove to the magistrate that there’s enough evidence for the charges to go to trial with some chance that people will be found guilty. Over three weeks the defence cross-examined a number of witnesses, most of whom were police officers. At the time of writing, people are still waiting for the magistrate to determine which charges will be going to trial. When she rules on this in late March a date for trial will be set.

Those who agreed to plead guilty will have their next hearing in early April. All of those who took plea bargains pleaded guilty to riot, and some individuals also pleaded guilty to other charges including criminal damage and recklessly causing serious injury. The prosecution have said that they’ll be seeking jail sentences for some people.

People from the G20 Arrestee Solidarity Network and Food not Bombs tried to make court more bearable by providing picnic lunches and money from fundraisers was used to help people with travel and legal costs.
Taskforce Salver Investigation Notes

During the committal hearing the defence obtained copies of many of the notes made by police about the G20 protests, including notes from ‘Taskforce Salver’, the taskforce set up to investigate G20 protestors. These notes are quite extensive, although sections areblacked out and other bits are poorly photocopied, and they add to the information we have about how and why people were arrested. Here are some preliminary notes on what we can learn from this information.

The notes make it clear that, from the beginning of the investigation, the police were targeting
individuals they had already identified as activists and therefore believed were ‘leaders.’ As well as going after individuals
they had picked out from the start, they also attended protests in both Melbourne and Sydney in the hope of identifying people
in the crowds, and arrested people from these identifications. Police who have monitored forest protesters, the Newtown police in Sydney and a number of universities and schools provided information to Taskforce Salver.

Activist social networks were also targeted. In January of 2001, groups of plain clothes police carried out surveillance of a number of pubs in inner-city Melbourne. (They were given instructions that officers drinking shouldn’t drive or arrest anyone.) Police also tried to identify people by searching for the names of punk bands from patches worn to the protest. Clothing, including shoes, bags and hats, was often used in making identifications and was seized in searches as people were arrested.

Taskforce Salver worked very closely with the APEC taskforce in Sydney. As we already knew, police from the APEC squad were present at the G20 protests. They were keen to help with the Sydney arrests and exchanged information with Melbourne. In return, Taskforce Salver sent APEC police video footage of solidarity demonstrations outside the court in Melbourne.

It was the APEC taskforce who recommended that the Sydney arrests be coordinated through the Counter Terrorism unit. When a member of Taskforce Salver first talked to the Counter Terrorism unit after this suggestion, they originally refused and said it wasn’t in their charter. The APEC taskforce, who arranged logistics for the arrests, nevertheless requested their involvement. As the Counter Terrorism unit did take part in the arrests, it is clear the cops in charge of policing APEC won their argument that these arrests and these political crimes should be dealt with by Counter Terrorism police.

Taskforce Salver also used the intensification of policing in the lead up to APEC to help their inquiries more generally. When they released the infamous ‘persons of interest’ photos to Crimestoppers and the media, they hoped that the hype around APEC would help get them national media coverage. Indeed, the photos – which showed 24 people without indicating
what, if any, crime they were suspected of, did receive widespread attention and a number of people were identified from them or were frightened into turning themselves in.

What can we learn from all this? That talking in pubs isn’t safe. That police are worried about protesters. That when we’re trying to hide our identities we need to be more thorough. That we could be under surveillance. These are things that perhaps we should have known already but didn’t want to take seriously.

But although this is serious and frightening it isn’t the end of the world. We can learn from this, keep supporting each other and continue resisting openly. The most important thing right now is that some of our friends and comrades are awaiting sentencing or still going through the tense tedium of court – or, in the worst case, in prison.

The G20 investigations are a test for both sides. The police have thrown intense resources towards them and what they manage to get away with in these trials is going to set new limits for what they’ll try to get away with next time. Anyone who thinks that we need to keep opening the spaces for protest and direct action needs to support the arrestees both politically and practically.

For more information about ongoing solidarity, organising, see www.afterg20.org

thanks to Mutiny Zine Chur

g20 defendants Melbourne 08

Oppressed of the World Unite & Fight

by Mark O'Connor - Gluaiseacht Fri Jun 06, 2008 14:48 markpeteroconnor at yahoo dot com

When I say I was in Genoa, it feels like saying 'I'm Spartacus'.

When I read names like Scajola, Fini, Giuliani it all comes flooding back. Hearing the screams and smashing glass from the Diaz school across the road. The pigs descending for 1 last hit.
(whaddya know; Brian Keenan was right, hearing torture being done to others is worse than receiving it).

Hiding in a room with a bunch of reporters. The cops come trundling through the corridors. Prepare to get the shit battoned out of you. "Prenza, prenza!" A couple of pigs boss through the room, pick up a few pages from printers, look around, fumble, and leave the room. What were you looking for you little piggy? You slave.

The panicked German girl shouting 'sheisen' and kickin furniture. The surreality of Vittorio Agnelotti holding a press conference in the indymedia centre basement while shouting continues outside. Shooting footage from the 3rd floor window of more pigs arriving. The injured, broken arms in splints, bloody heads wrapped in bandages, whistles of protest, "assassinos, assassinos". The piggy who tells me "stop filming or you will be arrested." Up yours piggy, you'll be on candid camera in "Berlisconi's mousetrap" in a year or so. And throughout the bullshit, I still never smoked a fag. (but you never really quit, do you?)

Filming the blood on the walls of the Diaz school. Destroyed friends, hugging, crying.
Sleeping on a gym floor in a tshirt. Sick in my stomach. Waking panicked with each slamming door.
Getting home, sleeping outside the Italian embassy. News at 1, star p3. Ireland sleeps on. Italy denies.
At home looking back at video footage of the night before in the car park, where we sang Beatles songs to keep our spirits up. The brothers who sang along that night, who ended up in a Kitty Holland article the following week, p3, showing the wounds from the pigs. (If you read this lads, please get in touch and say hello; I hope all's well.)

This shit happened.

Justice for those attacked by the Italian police in Genoa NOW.

Solidarity,
Mark

by Melbourne Sat May 31, 2008 05:34

http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/75496/index.php

by Marco Fri May 30, 2008 17:12

Thanks a lot for the detailed clarification, Mark, and Good Luck to you and to everyone involved in this.

About:

"Finally....Fini will not escape justice. Due to failure of the courts and prosecutors to question Fini, Carlo's case and Bolzaneto are now on their way to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Fini cannot use his pathetic arguments that he is immune to prosecution by the whole world. I will finish his political career if its the last thing i do. In his attempt to escape justice, he will cause much embarassment and shame for italy as the trials go to ECHR."

I have to say that, personally, I would not be so optimistic (Italy's recent and remote history is full of characters - even in very prominent political positions - whose personal history features a variety of "interesting" legal cases. Which however did not destroy their political careers - rather the opposite, I'd say).

Yet I completely agree that campaigns to have justice, support for the victims and public discussion about these events should go on, also at the international level. As the slogan goes: "La memoria e' un ingranaggio collettivo" ("Memory is a collective gear").

by Mark Covell Thu May 29, 2008 14:52

thanks marco. we were already aware of the Scajola article :) I think people realise now the task i have of translating some of the 100,000 court documents and articles for the plaintiffs and press alike. Due to the fact british corporate media rarely does anything about the case, there is little in english. it always annoys me intensely when people disregard the fact i am a plaintiff who gets this information from the GLF office and the prosecutors. I always get idiots on urban 75 who demand 'english sources' and then call me a liar...

Fini was the G8 Security Minister for the G8. Scajola stayed on Rome during the demonstrations. Fini was intending for Berlusconi and Scajola to take the blame if it went wrong and for himself to take the credit if it succeeded. Scajola was only informed a few hours before. His only task was to allocate the state police and Carabinieri units that were supposed to give escort and crowd control support to Canterini's 7th unit as they smashed into Diaz. The units Scajola allocated stay in the streets surrounding Diaz and did not take part in the human rights abuse.

The Carabinieri Commander, after walking around Diaz and seeing unconcious bodies everywhere and blood on the floors, walls, etc....went to Canterini and called him an 'A wild beast...and that it was unforgivable what he had done'

Scajola later said during the first 'whitewash' parliamentary inquiry that he knew little of the raid, did not like the look of it and 'pushed it back upstairs to Fini to deal with' . This was the first indication to the victims in late august 2001 that Fini was responsible. Other evidence came to light later which i will discuss at the meeting...

On the subject of Martin Hogbin, Sadly, the london indymedia article was hidden by an inexperienced indymedia journalist who does not know anything about the raid, fearing 'legal action from Hogbin', the article was hidden and to this day we are no closer to understandng his role in genoa at the moment.

Marco, you ask a very interesting question about Fini and about why he has never been called to be question. After G8, fini settled into his job as deputy prime minister and later as the foriegn minister. Due to these facts he had immunity from prosecution along with Berlusconi. In the end we tried the tactic of calling Fini as a prosecution witness in the trial of the 25 in relation to Carlo's death in an attempt to get around this problem but it did not work. The trial of the 25 protesters was more interested in bringing convictions than hearing the truth.

Castelli, the lega Nord Justice minister at the time, was called to testify in the Bolzaneto trial and in 2007. Knowing he faced being accused by the prosecutors for organising the torture at Bolzaneto, said that Fini had orded him to do it during the secret Diaz meeting at the Carabinieri maritime Headquarters on the afternoon of july 20th. this was where Fini was based. I am at a loss to explain the actions of the Bolzaneto Judges in not calling Fini after Prodi came to power to finally get to the bottom of what happened at Bolzaneto.

in Late 2005 it became clear that none of the prosecutors or judges involved in the trial of the 25, Diaz and Bolzaneto were prepared to question Fini so i called for the Diaz parliamentary inquiry which has now amazingly been approved by Berlusconi as he entered government in 2008. It is now expected that Fini will be called in front of the inquiry whilst La Maddalena is happening. Rumours are sweeping italy that Berlusconi refused to give Fini a job in cabinet because Berlusconi knows he would have to sack him when the Diaz verdict comes in.

Finally....Fini will not escape justice. Due to failure of the courts and prosecutors to question Fini, Carlo's case and Bolzaneto are now on their way to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Fini cannot use his pathetic arguments that he is immune to prosecution by the whole world. I will finish his political career if its the last thing i do. In his attempt to escape justice, he will cause much embarassment and shame for italy as the trials go to ECHR.

Amnesty international, who have just published their 2008 global human rights report quotes this:

http://thereport.amnesty.org/eng/regions/europe-and-cen...italy

G8 trials

Trials against law enforcement officials involved in the policing of the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001 continued. It is estimated that over 200,000 people participated in anti-globalization demonstrations on the streets of Genoa in the days immediately preceding and during the summit in 2001.

* On 17 January, it emerged that key evidence during a hearing in the trial of 29 police officers facing charges of, among others, violence and the fabrication of evidence in relation to the Diaz school building raid, had disappeared. The Genoa Questura (police station) stated that they may have been “destroyed by mistake”.
* In May, the first sentence for the G8 events was handed down. The Ministry of Interior was sentenced to pay reparations of €5,000 to Marina Spaccini and €18,000 to Simona Zabetta Coda, who were beaten by police officers in Genoa.
* In March, the European Court of Human Rights declared admissible the application lodged in the case of Carlo Giuliani, who was fatally shot by a law enforcement official during the G8 summit.

by Marco Wed May 28, 2008 18:20

Fini was Deputy Prime Minister at that time. It may be that what you are talking about is that there were claims that he was in Genoa during those days (and, No: not to take part in the demonstrations...). In particular, according to this old article in IM Italy:

http://italy.indymedia.org/news/2004/03/502365.php

he was going to be questioned as a witness about his alleged presence and role in the police forces headquarters during the events. But then I don't know how the things evolved (or if this was actually proved or disproven).

Apologies for the links to the two Italian articles in my comment above: unfortunately I could not find an English version - and I doubt that an automatic translation tool could capture the refined oratory of Italian politicians.

(I wouldn't dare to translate them myself, as my foreign languages' skills result from the same mixture and gave the same outcome as Mr. Giovanni Trapattoni's.)

by grassroots gathering 2008 Wed May 28, 2008 16:27

Please note that CASADH is a DRUG & ALCOHOL FREE SPACE, it is used as a drug rehabilitation centre during the week and drugs/alcohol are not allowed on the premises at any time.

by Donagh - GG 2008 Wed May 28, 2008 13:49 grassrootsgathering08 at gmail dot com

I'm afraid I don't have any Italian but thanks for the tips, Marco, especially about Fini. I probably got this mixed up when I was talking to Mark from ATS - so it's not that he doesn't know who/what Fini is/was!

So now I'm wondering what was Fini's position at the time...

by tomeile Wed May 28, 2008 13:04

It is “intensely suspected” by the victims of the Diaz Centre raid that the Italian police had been supplied with an ‘activist list’ provided by BAe mole Martin Hogbin before making the arrests .
Lawyers representing victims have issued an appeal for anyone with information on the movements of Hogbin at the summit to contact them so that they can build a more detailed picture of what he did and where he went to while there .
It is understood that Hogbin travelled on the SWP train from London and camped close to the Diaz centre . If you have any further information contact the Diaz layers at : MattFoot@birnbergpeirce.co.uk

see
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/87092

by Marco Wed May 28, 2008 11:58

Just a comment about:

"We're also trying to put Gianfranco Fini on trial, because he's the man responsibe [as then Interior Minister] for ordering the Diaz raid..."

As far as I know, actually the Minister of the Interior at that time was Claudio Scajola (have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Minister_of_the_In...erior).

By the way, those of you who are "lucky enough" to understand the Italian language may find it interesting to read this:

http://www.rainews24.rai.it/notizia.asp?newsid=18160

although - hey - apparently he later declared that he had stated it in an "improper way":

http://www.repubblica.it/online/politica/scajola/dichia....html

Finally, those of you who are "lucky enough" to understand the Italian language may also find it interesting to read this (opening quote from the Wikipedia page on the "Fatti del G8 di Genova"):

"La piu' grave sospensione dei diritti democratici in un paese occidentale dopo la seconda guerra mondiale."
(Amnesty International)

by Laurence Cox - Grassroots Gathering Wed May 28, 2008 11:15

English-language site of the Genova Legal Forum: http://www.supportolegale.org/?q=taxonomy/term/15

The film Genoa Red Zone at http://www.streetparty.sk/subtitles/

Also on Youtube (7 pieces) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBTpwt5hxmo&feature=related

The film Genova Citta' Aperta (various languages, English subtitles) at http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3561455/Genova.Citta.Aperta....XViD or http://www.streetparty.sk/subtitles/

The film Berlusconi's Mousetrap at http://www.indymedia.ie/article/75401

For anyone who can read Italian, some of Italy's best graphic artists have done a support book available to print at http://www.supportolegale.org/?q=gevsg8

by Grassroots Gathering 2008 - GG 2008 Tue May 27, 2008 23:49 grassrootsgathering08 at gmail dot com 00 353 85 724 3832

Here it is...

GG 2008 Genoa film night flyer