Amadeu Casellas 72 days Hungerstrike - "Broadening Political Support"

international | crime and justice | news report

Monday September 01, 2008 14:14

by solidarity

The newspaper of the Basque independence & armed struggle tradition "Gara" has carried an interview with Amadeu's mother & his lawyer on the weekend which they reflected on the release of the leader of Batasuna Arnaldo Otegi, & his call for dialogue and prisoner support. A translation to English of that Gara interview is included in this news piece on the ongoing campaigns.

Street activity, stencils, graffitis etc., are increasingly visible. International anarcho-solidarity has seen embassies and consuls picketed in South America & even Ireland.

A concentration at the prison hospital fence in Terrassa Catalonia
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/349875/...x.php

A march of several hundred in Barcelona. http://barcelona.indymedia.org/?category=criminalitzacio
Statements of support from deputies of both the ERC (Catalan Republican Independence) party and ICV (Catalan post-marxist Greens), Both deputies formally requesting in an open letter to Albert Batlle of the Catalan penitentiary service to meet with Amadeu.
http://blocs.esquerra.cat/joan-tarda/bloc/demanem-veure...uacio
http://www.vilaweb.cat/www/noticia?p_idcmp=2979727
http://www.vilaweb.cat/www/noticia?p_idcmp=2981247

It is thus an idea to communicate with that individual :-

__Dirección General de Servicios Penitenciarios
__Albert Batlle
__c/Aragó, 332. Barcelona, España
__Phone: 0034.93.214.01.00
__Fax: 00 34.93.214.01.56

__________________________.: translation of the Gara interview :.______________________
In spite of Amadeu Casellas having today [yesterday] reached 71 days of hunger strike, the provincial
government of Catalonya refuses to recieve his relatives. The Mossos d'esquadra (regional police) impeded their monday meeting with Albert Batlle, responsible for the Penitentiary Service, if the support demo which was taking place in front of the Government premises was not disassembled.

Q: Why is Amadeu Casellas in prison?

DIANA REIG: Principally for the various bank robberies during the 70's and 80s'.
The money taken was given, above all, to workers of businesses in struggle. He was a militant Anarchist.

Q: And why did the hunger strike of the past 23rd of June start?

D.R.: What Amadeu requires with the hunger strike is that he is set free, and two options are offered: that he is given the 'third grade', or the merging of sentences currently being met.In 1987 he already had 5 convictions merged, which converted to 15 years. What we ask now is that thay make the same with those which are being served, as it's a normal practise with all prisoners. If the sentences which are being serves now are merged, they become 15 years. Altogether then, 30 years of imprisonment. If from these 30 years we subtract eight years of penitentiary benefits, we collect the 22 years of prison which have already been served.

Q: Taking all of these elements into consideration, what is the reason he has not been released already?

D.R.: the Penentiary Institution of the Governemnt gives the excuse of breach of condemnation, which have been broken various times. But there there's a trap, because in reality they make him pay two times for the crime: on the one hand, among the convictions for which he serves time include violation of condemnation, but also say that breaking the prison sentence he loses benefits. It's a double conviction for a single offence.

Q: The petition of release, At what point of the legal level is it found?

ROSER IBORRA: We presented it to the Judge de Vic as proper, but she has shown to be very hard and denied freedom. She never tired of repeating that she was subjected to the "rule of law". Now we have appealed to the Provincial Audience of Barcelona. But we know that the reason for which they maintain him encarcelated isn't legal so much as political. They do this to punish him as a prisoner that has been very vindictive.

Q: In what revindications has Amadeu Casellas participated during his stay in prison?

D.R.: He has participated in many campaigns during the space of all the years which he has been in prison -He has been in all the Catalan prisons-, and has made various hunger strikes. Recently he has participated in the campaign against the FIES prisons and for the release of ill prisoners.

Q: How is he physically after 70 days of hunger strike?

D.R.: He has lost 30 kilos in these 70 days, and now only weighs 63, as such is very skeletal. And now we are worried because if he stops taking glucose his health can deteriorate very rapidly.

JOSEFINA RAMON: I'm afraid because I don't know what will happen, i've afraid that there are sequels left. Now he's starting to lose his sight, and can't get out of bed. he doesn't want that I visit him so I don't see how he is. Those of the Penitentiary Institutions have their compassion in the feet. The last time I was there alone they left me only 15 minutes to be with him. Many times i've bit my toungue because I don't want to say things that could bring him problems.

R.I.: Since he has been transferred to the hospital they only let his Mother, the Lawyer, and two people more enter. I have made the request to visit him 4 times, and Amadeu himself as well has asked, but every time we ask they tell us that they don't have a record of the request and we have to return again to ask.

Q: In respect to his state of mind, how have you found him?

D.R.: He is very lively, has many hopes, and this makes us have a lot of hope for everything. The truth is he is almost skeletal, but when you speak with him he's always still lively, and he also makes you more lively. He is convinced with what he's doing. The first hunger strike began in April, but he stopped because the head of the prison told him he would resolve the situation; but he did not, so Amadeu saw that he had been "sold smoke", that he had been cheated.
Now he says that he will exit on his own legs, or with his feet forward. The hunger strike is to the final consequences.
...

GARA 31 august 2008

Translated from: http://www.gara.net/paperezkoa/20080831/94285/es/Amadeu...ldra-
c/f http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/350059/...x.php

solidarity actions have been reported in many places including Chile, Canada, the Basque Country, Ireland, Mexico & Uraguay .
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/349985/...x.php

you can still send him postcards -

Amadeu Casellas Ramón
Hospital de Terrassa, Mòdul penitenciari
Ctra. Torrebonica, s/n
C.P. 08227
Terrassa
Catalunya
Spain

____________________________________________________________________
http://paisatgedesdelafinestra.blogspot.com/2008/08/lam....html
http://paisatgedesdelafinestra.blogspot.com/2008/08/ama....html

his lawyer Francesc Arnau
http://despatxdalp.blogspot.com/
updates from La Haine
http://www.lahaine.org/index.php?s=Amadeu+Casellas&sent...uscar
updates from A Las Barricadas
http://www.alasbarricadas.org/noticias/?q=node/8328
reports on IMC UK
"Amadeu Casellas, 64 days hungerstrike - a "not political enough" prisoner."
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/407410.html
Amadeu Casellas, 72 days hungerstrike - a "more political" prisoner now.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/09/407966.html
a new news wiki compilation :-
http://www.wikio.es/news/Amadeu+Casellas
Barcelona IMC criminalisation & repression section
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/?category=criminalitzacio

IMC Ireland articles on Amadeu
http://www.indymedia.ie/openwire?search_text=amadeu&x=0&y=0