Искра
12th December 2009, 10:12
Serbian original: http://www.b92.net/info/misljenja/index.php?nav_id=397457
Open letter of the group of intellectuals concerning the court trial against six anarchists
Indictment for terrorism against anarchists - a political trial
A supposed throwing of two burning beer bottles on the Greek embassy has been qualified as a crime from a list of most serious crimes by public prosecution office on 3rd November 2009. Six proved antifascists are thus being accused of no more and no less than international terrorism! A group for monitoring of trial against six anarchists has initiated a petition, collecting signatures under the open letter that aims to bring to public attention the fact, that what we are faced with is in fact a political trial. Text of the letter was supported by numerous intellectuals.
The group for monitoring of the trial against six anarchists
On 3rd and 4th September 2009 Ivan Vulović (24), Sanja Dojkić (19), Ivan Savić (25), Ratibor Trivunac(28), Tadej Kurepa (24) i Nikola Mitrović (29) were arrested by the police. They were arrested under suspicion that they may have perpetrated the criminal act of causing general danger by throwing “Molotov cocktails” at the Greek embassy building. 24 hours later the state prosecution office changed the police qualification of the supposed act from “causing general danger” to “criminal act of international terrorism”. We fear that this was an arbitrary interpretation of Criminal Code and the case of it’s instrumentation for daily political purposes.
It is necessary to state the social context in which all this is happening. Historical revisionism is becoming more and more normalized and legal rehabilitations of nazi collaborators from the II. World War are on the agenda. Equalization of leftist and far-right political ideas is a consequence. Just in the year 2009 we have witnessed the escalation of violence (as a consequence one foreign citizen was killed) and numerous threats with violence were made by the fascist groups. All of this was met with a mild reaction from the state prosecution and the police. To name just one example: in days leading to the Pride parade the threats with physical liquidation of gay population were termed just “polemical tones” by the state’s representative.
The state has been brought to a situation where a confrontation with the violent right-wing groups that it initially nurtured, but have long since metastasised seems unavoidable, if only just an illusionary one. And yet the state finds its scape goat on the left, penalizing it with draconian measures to establish a quasi-balance and present itself state as “just” (as “restrained”) in opposing two equally dangerous extremes.
We live in a state where there is no guarantee that a person would be prosecuted for his or her promotion of racial, religious and national hatred. In all these years members of clero-fascist organisation Obraz (it is operating without problems since 1993) and Serbian national movement 1389 (it is presenting itself as “patriotic” while maintaining close contacts with Russian fascist organizations) have not been held criminally responsible for their acts that had involved threats against LGBT population and numerous attacks and beatings of members of the latter! Leader of a nazi organization “Nacionalni stroj” Goran Davidović - “Fuehrer” was allowed to openly mock the legal system of Republic of Serbia, when he succeeded in his complaint against the guilty verdict in his case, basing it on the fact that documents of the trial were written in latinic letters.
We also need to remind us to the fact that in the Criminal Code of Republic of Serbia the act of international terrorism is listed together with genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes against civil population, organization and incitement of genocide, war crimes and aggressive war. We live in a country, that for decades now is being governed by national-chauvinistic discourse and where even today it is being debated, whether there was a genocide in Srebrenica or not, or whether mass war crimes in Kosovo even happened.
The readiness of prosecution office to qualify two thrown beer bottles in the same way as the most horrific crimes known to humanity represents a devaluation of these crimes and is a symptom of a deeply degenerated value system that made it possible.
On the night between 23rd-24th October R.K. (17), N.H. (18) i I.F. (19) were arrested in Vršac. The reason for their arrest was that they had been pasting posters with “Freedom for arrested anarchists” witten on them. A criminal case was initiated against these young people as they are being accused of “obstruction of justice” (Article 336b of Criminal Code). They are threatened with three years in prison if found guilty. Despite the fact that the stated intention that initially brought to the inclusion of this paragraph in the Criminal Code was the fight against right wing extremism, what we again see is the crackdown of the left.
We think that the reason that a political indictment of this kind could even be produced lies in the influence the political parties have on the representative and judicial branch of the government (one example is the fact that judges are re-elected by High council for legal fairs, whose members are nominated by the parliament). Venetian commission at the Council of Europe and European Commission have both already pointed out this arrangement as controversial.
Taking into account the Article 10 of European Declaration of Human Rights we do not hesitate to openly state that all the circumstances of this case clearly lead to a conclusion that in its essence the trial against six young people is a political trial. This is why we demand the the withdrawal of this senseless indictment.
10. December 2009
Aleksej Kišjuhas
Borka Pavićević
Dragomir Olujić
Goran Despotović
Jovo Bakić
Ljubiša Rajić
Ljubomir Živkov
Pavel Domonji
Sonja Biserko
Sonja Drljević
Srbijanka Turajlić
Staša Zajović
Svetlana Lukić
Svetlana Vuković
Todor Kuljić
Nebojša Spaić
Vera Marković
Vesna Rakić Vodinelić
Vladimir Ilić
Zagorka Golubović
Zoran Petakov
Želimir Žilnik
Open letter of the group of intellectuals concerning the court trial against six anarchists
Indictment for terrorism against anarchists - a political trial
A supposed throwing of two burning beer bottles on the Greek embassy has been qualified as a crime from a list of most serious crimes by public prosecution office on 3rd November 2009. Six proved antifascists are thus being accused of no more and no less than international terrorism! A group for monitoring of trial against six anarchists has initiated a petition, collecting signatures under the open letter that aims to bring to public attention the fact, that what we are faced with is in fact a political trial. Text of the letter was supported by numerous intellectuals.
The group for monitoring of the trial against six anarchists
On 3rd and 4th September 2009 Ivan Vulović (24), Sanja Dojkić (19), Ivan Savić (25), Ratibor Trivunac(28), Tadej Kurepa (24) i Nikola Mitrović (29) were arrested by the police. They were arrested under suspicion that they may have perpetrated the criminal act of causing general danger by throwing “Molotov cocktails” at the Greek embassy building. 24 hours later the state prosecution office changed the police qualification of the supposed act from “causing general danger” to “criminal act of international terrorism”. We fear that this was an arbitrary interpretation of Criminal Code and the case of it’s instrumentation for daily political purposes.
It is necessary to state the social context in which all this is happening. Historical revisionism is becoming more and more normalized and legal rehabilitations of nazi collaborators from the II. World War are on the agenda. Equalization of leftist and far-right political ideas is a consequence. Just in the year 2009 we have witnessed the escalation of violence (as a consequence one foreign citizen was killed) and numerous threats with violence were made by the fascist groups. All of this was met with a mild reaction from the state prosecution and the police. To name just one example: in days leading to the Pride parade the threats with physical liquidation of gay population were termed just “polemical tones” by the state’s representative.
The state has been brought to a situation where a confrontation with the violent right-wing groups that it initially nurtured, but have long since metastasised seems unavoidable, if only just an illusionary one. And yet the state finds its scape goat on the left, penalizing it with draconian measures to establish a quasi-balance and present itself state as “just” (as “restrained”) in opposing two equally dangerous extremes.
We live in a state where there is no guarantee that a person would be prosecuted for his or her promotion of racial, religious and national hatred. In all these years members of clero-fascist organisation Obraz (it is operating without problems since 1993) and Serbian national movement 1389 (it is presenting itself as “patriotic” while maintaining close contacts with Russian fascist organizations) have not been held criminally responsible for their acts that had involved threats against LGBT population and numerous attacks and beatings of members of the latter! Leader of a nazi organization “Nacionalni stroj” Goran Davidović - “Fuehrer” was allowed to openly mock the legal system of Republic of Serbia, when he succeeded in his complaint against the guilty verdict in his case, basing it on the fact that documents of the trial were written in latinic letters.
We also need to remind us to the fact that in the Criminal Code of Republic of Serbia the act of international terrorism is listed together with genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes against civil population, organization and incitement of genocide, war crimes and aggressive war. We live in a country, that for decades now is being governed by national-chauvinistic discourse and where even today it is being debated, whether there was a genocide in Srebrenica or not, or whether mass war crimes in Kosovo even happened.
The readiness of prosecution office to qualify two thrown beer bottles in the same way as the most horrific crimes known to humanity represents a devaluation of these crimes and is a symptom of a deeply degenerated value system that made it possible.
On the night between 23rd-24th October R.K. (17), N.H. (18) i I.F. (19) were arrested in Vršac. The reason for their arrest was that they had been pasting posters with “Freedom for arrested anarchists” witten on them. A criminal case was initiated against these young people as they are being accused of “obstruction of justice” (Article 336b of Criminal Code). They are threatened with three years in prison if found guilty. Despite the fact that the stated intention that initially brought to the inclusion of this paragraph in the Criminal Code was the fight against right wing extremism, what we again see is the crackdown of the left.
We think that the reason that a political indictment of this kind could even be produced lies in the influence the political parties have on the representative and judicial branch of the government (one example is the fact that judges are re-elected by High council for legal fairs, whose members are nominated by the parliament). Venetian commission at the Council of Europe and European Commission have both already pointed out this arrangement as controversial.
Taking into account the Article 10 of European Declaration of Human Rights we do not hesitate to openly state that all the circumstances of this case clearly lead to a conclusion that in its essence the trial against six young people is a political trial. This is why we demand the the withdrawal of this senseless indictment.
10. December 2009
Aleksej Kišjuhas
Borka Pavićević
Dragomir Olujić
Goran Despotović
Jovo Bakić
Ljubiša Rajić
Ljubomir Živkov
Pavel Domonji
Sonja Biserko
Sonja Drljević
Srbijanka Turajlić
Staša Zajović
Svetlana Lukić
Svetlana Vuković
Todor Kuljić
Nebojša Spaić
Vera Marković
Vesna Rakić Vodinelić
Vladimir Ilić
Zagorka Golubović
Zoran Petakov
Želimir Žilnik