THE PARK BENCH 3 – TRIAL STARTS JANUARY 2020

We would like to inform you that the trial against the 3 Hamburg comrades is just around the corner. 2 of them are still in custody since their arrest on the night of July 8, 2019.

The trial is due to start on January 8th, 2020 at 1 p.m. in the regional court in Hamburg (courtroom still unclear). Come to the start of the trial and show solidarity with the comrades!

Come New Year’s Eve to Holstenglacis UKnast to start the new year with the prisoners!

On Sunday, January 5th, 2020 at 5 p.m. there will be an information event in Rote Flora about the Park Bench 3 and on Tuesday, January 7th, 2020 at 7 p.m. there will be an evening demo before the start of the trial at the Centro Sociale.

January 8^th will be the first day of the trial, rally at the district court from 12 noon!

Stay alert and wait for further announcements!

Freedom for the Park Bench 3!

parkbanksolidarity.blackblogs.org/

—————————

Translated from German by Act for freedom now!

Saturday August 10, 2019

Hello everyone !

It has now been a little over a month since we three of the Park Bench were arrested and, in a second time, two of us were taken into custody. In this letter, I would like to describe a little bit about my personal situation, here in jail. I can not say anything about the charges or the progress of the court process, because we can not communicate between people involved. I can only agree with the council not to indulge in speculation, gossip and panic.

The solidarity and support we receive here are wonderful and breathtaking. The many letters, the words of greetings, the photos and the gather give us strength and confidence. You are awesome.

Now, preventive detention. This means, here, at least during the first months, 23 hours of confinement in 10 square meters, with bed, table, chair, wardrobe, toilet and sink. An hour’s walk in the courtyard, in my case with the other prisoners on my floor, alternately morning or afternoon. We wake up at 6:30, with a loud alarm, lunch is at 11:30, dinner is served at 16:30 and must also be enough for breakfast, because in the morning there is only hot water or tea. Food is usually enough to make ends meet, but those who want a balanced diet depend on the “canteen” to buy things from the prison. Every Wednesday, the lists of orders, in German language, are collected the next day. Saturday, we will get our order. It’s not exactly cheap and it’s paid with the money from our account at the prison. On top of that there is the money we had in our pocket at the time of the arrest, the money sent from the outside and our insignificant salary, if we work during preventive detention. Unlike detention following a conviction, here work is not an obligation and we work mainly in prison services – cooking, cleaning, painting, laundry ….

Other “privileges” – a rental radio, a rental television, participation in sports groups, discussion circles, courses, etc. must be requested from the school management and, of course, all the prison bureaucracy works only in German. Processing of these requests takes at least a few weeks. The prison guards are extremely abrupt and all information on daily life in prison must be drawn through their noses, the questions annoy them and they give answers reluctantly and in anger; only a few speak English.

The registration procedure, including naked bending, the first night in the “observation cell”, where you take off your civilian clothes and they put you in a cell where the light stays on all night, as well as that the disconcerting marathon through the establishment, looks like an initiation, which must make you understand that now you are part of a judicial process that must be administered, nothing more. A humiliating experience. After dark in the observation cell, one recovers his civilian clothes; this is probably a small exception, because in many other remand prisons, the norm is the clothes of the establishment.

The clear majority of people I meet here are imprisoned for drug-related offenses or so-called drug-related offenses, and either do not have a German passport or have a another nationality in addition to the German one, which explains the danger of flight. Non-German-speaking prisoners are often exposed to the condescending ignorance of guards, who often carry racist underpinnings. In the early days, the bureaucracy of the jail was already very opaque for me, who is accustomed to the illusion of German order. It becomes quite clear that the legally stated purpose of pre-trial detention, that is to say that the persons concerned by the “guarantee of procedure” are there, is only one aspect among the useful elements of pretrial detention.The purpose of these harassing conditions, of which I can describe here only partially the level, are clearly the maximum uncertainty, humiliation, isolation and discipline. This is especially true for the first few weeks – before we can phone, write letters, talk; for many days, one is delivered to oneself, with only a pen and paper, for 23 hours. The first opportunity to get out of jail is still two weeks after incarceration. No surprise therefore, if it is precisely these first weeks that make prison a factory that works perfectly for the purpose of producing accusations (often false), confessions (often hasty) and successful convictions (for the State). In this way, this system is constantly legitimized.

In addition to the people who are imprisoned here during the proceedings and who often leave quickly because they admit, sway or because the preliminary hearing gives a lenient result, I meet here many convicts who are fined pecuniary form of this called “substitution penalty.” Who does not pay a fine, at one point receives a prison warrant and at the next police check ends in. A day in detention is therefore a fixed daily rate, I heard here figures between 6 and 10 euros per day. Those lucky get in touch with friends or relatives, who then pay all or part of the fine, which can be deducted from the length of incarceration. Those who have no one serve their debts in prison. People who are in detention for an alternative sentence are not allowed to work, even if many of them would like to do so, to exchange a pittance for a few days of anticipated freedom.

The list of possible examples, anecdotes that can only enrage, is of course quite long and beyond the scope of this letter.

If we take a closer look, we will notice that the argument often made, that the jail is a mirror of society, is undoubtedly true. Not only do I encounter, of course, the same cowardice, the same racism, the same lack of solidarity and the indifference that we find on the outside. The same mechanisms of exclusion, privilege, discipline, coercion and exploitation, which cover such a support role for the order of this world, are concentrated as if under a magnifying glass. to inculcate people imprisoned here, and with an intensive course, the way to walk right.

The fact that concepts such as integration, discipline (or disciplinary measures) or good behavior, found in almost all the coercive institutions of this society, be it school, office, labor, social service (in many cases, certainly not all) or even prison, and all of which have a military background, reveals that none of these aspects of domination and control can be considered independently others.

Those who have a fundamental problem with authority and domination, unless they have an ideologically different variant of a coercive and disciplined society in mind, should not be silent about these correlations.

When the state imprisons us, as opposed to its regime, it does so for the same reasons that it has to imprison the homeless who have not paid their fine for a bet of vodka in the supermarket or those those who, because of a plantation of grass and their family name supposedly belonging to the false “big Arab family,” are sentenced to a much heavier penalty than their blond accomplices.

To be bound to certain prisoners and to feel solidarity with them is quite understandable and for me it is a fundamental element of a real solidarity, which must for me have a character of reciprocity. A culture of prisoner support and assistance to those affected by repression would, however, be at a premium for further integrating repressive state attacks into a general analysis of the relations of domination.

Our imprisonment is not a particular injustice, but a necessary consequence of the logic that this world works. And we must put an end to this logic, for the liberation of all!

A warm and supportive embrace!

Until all are free!

One of the Park Bench 3

Attack Note: The prison (UHA) in Hostelglacis, Hamburg, is for people in pre-trial detention (and those locked up for unpaid fines). In Germany, in prisons for convicts (JVA) work is compulsory, seemingly apparently with rates (and wages) worthy of industrial workers of the nineteenth century…

From: https://attaque.noblogs.org/post/2019/09/09/hambourg-allemagne-les-trois-de-la-parkbank-une-lettre-depuis-la-prison-de-holstenglacis/#more-28612

via: .amwenglish.

Background

About a month ago, three of our comrades were arrested in Hamburg (in a part of the city called Eimsbüttel). Two of them are still in remand custody pending trial. Although new information is still scarce, this text is meant to spread what we know so far, about the investigation and about the general development of this blow of repression the three of them are facing.

Here is what happened: the night before the 8th of July, our three comrades were sitting on a park bench as they became the subject of a police check, after which they were arrested. Shortly after, several apartments in Hamburg were searched. Police destroyed some doors and furniture and confiscated a lot of stuff. In some of the apartments, the people present during the search did not receive a list of the confiscated items as normally required.

One day later the cops issued a statement that gave “suspicion of preparing a serious crime” (“alleged arson”) as the reason for taking the three, who were brought before a magistrate in a court hearing one day after their arrest. Two of them have been in remand custody ever since. The third person’s arrest warrant has been suspended, they were let go under the condition that they report to the police regularly. The person is not allowed to leave the country. However, the arrest warrant has not been lifted, but only suspended. The defense had applied for having the remand reviewed, but withdrew the application for strategic reasons. In a remand review, the court decides whether or not to keep prisoners in custody until their trial. Review hearings are not open to the public.

What we know about the investigation so far

The investigating authority is the Supreme Prosecution Office, which means: Usually, the Supreme Prosecution Office will go for really big cases, such as trials against the PKK or members of the IS. Other big cases like the Breite-Straße trial in Hamburg, or the trials that followed the 2017 G20 summit in Hamburg (Elbchaussee, Rondenbarg) are not investigated by this office. Them getting involved now shows that they are adopting a threatening posture, one that we have to show a united front against!

Since the investigation is currently ongoing, there are some things you should consider now more than ever:

• don‘t make any statements to the cops or any other authorities of repression!
• don‘t talk or speculate about what is going on when you are in public places (at the bar with your friends, …). Also, absolutely no discussion of the issue via phone or internet
• don‘t talk to the press
• if you would like to publish something yourself, only use information that is publicly available

It is very well possible that the cops or security agencies will try to talk to you, to access new information, or to “simply get your take on the events”. If you are being approached like this, refuse to talk to them – in order to protect the people immediately affected by this investigation, as well as yourself and everybody else. You should then contact the legal team (Ermittlungsausschuss/EA), Rote Hilfe and/or Out-Of-Action (activist emotional first aid). For the sake of other people’s safety, the fact that someone has been approached by the authorities needs to be made public right away.

Solidarity

There have already been numerous actions showing solidarity with the “Drei von der Parkbank”. That’s great and feels really empowering, so keep them coming!

How are the two prisoners doing on the inside?

The prisoners are facing harsh conditions in Holstenglacis prison. They are locked away alone in their cells for 23 hours each day. They only see other inmates during one hour of yard exercise a day, and during the few hours they are allowed to spend locked in another prisoner‘s cell on the weekends (how long that is at the prison guards‘ discretion and depends on their mood).

Both of them have had visitors already, the cops were always in the room with them. Visiting hours are very limited though: twice a month, up to 3 people can visit for a maximum of 1 hour. The two of them said that they are keeping their heads up. The solidarity people have shown in front of the prison did get through to them (solidarity demonstration, people giving speeches, shouting, fireworks), and they said it gave them strength and courage. None of the two were able to make phone calls so far, plainly because the phone company responsible was on holiday (WTF?). Both have already received books. You cannot send books directly to them, because any book they are supposed to get has to be approved of before. Only then can you order an original copy to be sent right to prison. If you happen to have ideas for what books the two could like, feel free to contact the blog (see below), or tell the prisoners themselves when you send them a letter.

Finally, the two can now receive letters. It takes quite some time for letters to actually reach them, though, because three separate authorities (the prison, the cops (State Office of Criminal Investigation) and the state prosecutor‘s office) check all of them. Keep sending them letters, so that they always have something to read! You can read up on what to consider when sending letters to prisoners on the solidarity blog: parkbanksolidarity.blackblogs.org

Remember: number the pages of your letter and include a list of what is in the envelope – to make sure everything actually arrives! Don‘t forget to include some stamps.

Please be aware that the prisoners do not want their full names to be known publicly. Meaning: you need to get creative when launching fireworks next to the prison or yelling greetings across the prison walls (both best to be done between 5 and 9.30 p.m.). Instead, you could also do a shout-out to all of the prisoners incarcerated there! If you are thinking about organizing actions such as concerts or demonstrations next to the prison, please announce it way ahead of time (for example in an email to the blog). On the weekends, the prisoners are allowed to spend some hours with other inmates and need to know beforehand that something will be going on on the outside, in order to plan accordingly and be able to see and/or hear as much of your solidarity as possible.

Continue to show your solidarity! Do actions, organize solidarity events (cafés, bar nights, brunches, concerts, parties, info events, letter writing etc. …). Take care of one another and keep your eyes and ears open. Let your friends know! Let‘s overcome the silence and the insecurity together! We are angry!

Freedom for the “Drei von der Parkbank“!

Freedom for all prisoners!

parkbanksolidarity