THOUGHT CRIMINALS "It's clear that not only those who materially took part
in the devastation should be prosecuted, but also those who facilitated the
acts or gave strength to their purpose. These people should be prosecuted
even if they didn't conduct any material act." - Italian judge, Elena
D'Alosio. Yep, you guessed it, Berlusconi's government have gone from bad
to worse with reasons to arrest activists: two weeks ago it was for
"subversive association" (SchNEWS 382) and now a new wave of arrests have
occurred for "mental participation" in the Genoa demonstrations. On the
morning of 4th December, investigations against 23 people were started by
magistrates and 45 houses were raided. The accusations range from
devastation and depredation (crimes punishable with 8-15 years
imprisonment) to possession of illegal weapons to, SchNEWS' favourite,
"mental participation" and "psychological support" in the Genoa actions.
The judge, D'Alosio, ordered preventative arrests for 9 of the 23 under
investigation, four are under house arrest, six are obliged to remain at
home and the remaining four have to present themselves at the police
station. Interestingly, all of these arrests have been ordered one and a
half years after the relevant events. 'Thoughtcrime' is now a punishable
offence in Berlusconi's and Big Business' Italy as some of the No Global
activists under investigation but not in custody are suspected of having
offered psychological support to violent demonstrations. The judge has said
that those who must respond to the charges of 'devastation' are not just
those who participated physically but those who encouraged the crime and
whose mere presence in demonstrations provides moral support to the more
violent demonstrators. In the wise words of D'Alosio "The behaviour of
those who were on the scene of the riots, together with the most violent
ones, gave strength to these people by their very presence. Their acts were
not crimes in themselves, but aided the criminal intentions of the others
with their moral support." So basically Italian activists can now be
legally nicked for being at a demo that turns violent or being part of an
anti-capitalist collective. And even though the judge has admitted that
such acts are not "fundamentally criminal" the activists are still under
investigation. The whole legal circus has seen arrests and detentions in
over twenty Italian towns and this G8-related drive for justice coincides
with an interesting case: magistrates are attempting to close the case
against the carabinieri accused of shooting Carlo Giuliani during the G8
protests. It seems likely the carabinieri, Placanica, will be acquitted as
Giuliani's killing was 'legitimate self-defence.' So the murderers run free
while the thinkers get nicked. ...AND FINALLY... If you're going to go on a
consumer spending spree this Christmas, then it wouldn't be such a bad idea
to make sure that some capitalist scum-bag is picking up the tab. Which is
just what a group calling themselves the Guinea Pig Avengers managed to do.
When the group stumbled across the credit card details of two vivisectors
associated with the Newchurch Guinea Pig farm, they decided to make this
the best Christmas ever, running up bills of �15,000 - not bad for an
afternoon's work!
http://www.ainfos.ca/ainfos14991.html
