On Friday 3rd of February Mahmoud A. got arrested in the asylum center of Thessaloniki when he came to attend the interview for his asylum application. He was brought to the police station of Thessaloniki and did not know why he has been arrested or for how long he will have to remain imprisoned...
Mahmoud from Syria, as many others, is stuck in Greece due to the closure of the FYROM -(Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia) Border in february 2016. Since then he has been forced to live in unbearable conditions in different camps throughout Greece. During his time in Idomeni he and other refugees founded the independent media group “Refugee TV”. They were reporting about the situation and conditions in the camp and published their videos on the Internet. After the eviction of Idomeni end of may 2016, the group was still active and kept being an unpleasant observer of the still inacceptable conditions in the camps they were transferred to after. For his unwillingness to stay silent, Mahmoud had to experience repression in form of police raids, arrests and searches many times.
Now he is accused for having distributed a leaflet that called to a demonstration in Idomeni on 10th of April 2016 as well as being a “Threat for the security of Greece” . As these accusations are a felony in Greece, he can face a prison sentence for up to 20 years. His interrogation with the prosecutor will be on thursday, 9th of february.
On 10th of April 2016, a time where more than 10 000 people were stuck in Idomeni, hundreds of refugees went to a demonstration at the border fence. A small delegation of five refugees went to the border police before in order to discuss if they could cross Macedonian territory, claiming they neither wanted food or money, but just to cross the border. After their demand was denied by the border police a demonstration erupted. The Macedonian military answered with tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades, attacking the protesting refugees, many of them children. Hundreds of people had been injured by the attack of the Macedonian military.
It is clear that this trial is not an attempt to really find those responsible for hundreds of injured and traumatized. It is a political campaign against those that are not willing to silently accept the inhumane treatment they are exposed to in Greece and other countries of Europe on a daily base. It is aiming to scare and mute people that are exposing and fighting the injustice they are facing on a daily base, using the cover of a so called “system of justice”.
We will keep reporting and updating about this case. If you are interested in supporting the solidarity campaign for Mahmoud A., write an email to antirep-thessaloniki@riseup.net
WE DEMAND THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF MAHMOUD A. FROM PRISON AND DROPPING OF ALL CHARGES AGAINST HIM.
FREEDOM FOR MAHMOUD A. AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS.
OUR PASSION FOR FREEDOM IS BIGGER THAN YOUR PRISONS.
correction
As we were told by a careful reader, we messed up the dates of the events. The demonstration we are talking about took place on 10th of April and NOT on 10th of February as said in the article. We are really sorry for this and hope you are taking our exhaustion of the last days in account. Here (http://livetickereidomeni.bordermonitoring.eu/2016/04/10/10-04-2016/) you can find some background information about the incident.
done
we changed that sentence, it now says "April". :)