The New Inquisition
A Grotesque Frameup Against Anarchists
4 More Anarchists in Prison in Italy as judge Marini's farce reaches its conclusion
In Italy a considerable number of anarchists are active in the struggle, using
all the means they think fit: newspapers, leaflets, squatting buildings, supporting
prisoners, demos, sabotage, etc. This disturbs power at a time when it needs
to show that ‘everything is under control’. Yes, anarchists are
a nuisance. They won’t keep quiet or accept the logic of dialogue with
the institutions. This disturbs. Over the past two decades small acts of sabotage
have spread and multiplied throughout Italy. The means used are simple and
easy copied. The analysis is also simple and crystal clear: we must self-organise
our lives and our struggle, and attack power in all its manifestations before
it is too late, before the technology of control begins to take over our very
minds.
So, in a world now divided into good and evil, into social integration and
criminalisation, the delicate balance of capitalist relations could be tipped
at any moment, and the forces of power know this well. For many years the
Italian police and judiciary have tried to keep anarchists quiet and criminalise
their publications by accusing them on every possible occasion. This had always
given poor results until, in the middle of the nineties, five comrades were
arrested following a bank robbery in the Trentino region. Before long, they
also found themselves accused of another two robberies that had been carried
out in the area and had remained unsolved. Anarchists from all over Italy
immediately gave their solidarity through many kinds of initiative: leaflets,
posters, benefits, a written dossier, a constant presence at the court hearings,
fireworks and smoke bombs outside Trento prison, etc. The subsequent attention
of the ROS (Special Operations Carabinieri) and the judiciary in Rome, resulted
in the rigging of the most grotesque frame up against anarchists in Italy
since the fascist bombs of piazza Fontana in 1969 which anarchists were accused
of.
One year after the robbery in question, massive raids were carried out all
over Italy on orders of Public Prosecutor Antonio Marini, and many comrades
were given formal warnings that they were under investigation for robbery,
kidnapping and of belonging to an ‘armed band’. At the same time
Marini ordered the search of the cells in which the anarchists serving prison
sentences for one reason or another were being held. This huge police operation
was carried out with the precious help of the Italian media: on January 3
1996 many newspapers featured the news prominently, describing the anarchists
under investigation as ‘kidnappers’ and ‘terrorists’.
The only evidence to support these accusations was the ‘confession’
of a ‘repentant terrorist’ (pentita), a young girl who had been
the girlfriend of Carlo Tesseri, one of the comrades arrested after the robbery
in 1994. She was not known in the anarchist movement at all, nor had she taken
part in any anarchist activity, but Judge Marini and the Carabinieri of the
Special Operations Group managed to convince her to ‘confess’
to one of the unsolved robberies in the Trentino region and name Carlo and
the other comrades (plus a few more) as her accomplices. At the hearings that
followed the girl’s faltering statements were strongly contradictory
and meaningless. Nevertheless, Italian legislation, of which Marini is quite
a significant representative, gives full credibility to whatever pentito comes
forth to collaborate with the police in exchange for a monthly salary and
protection for life. So the girl’s confused and absurd ‘confession’
was deemed true and reliable by the court. Thanks to his false pentita and
protégé Marini was able to extend his Inquisition. His aim was
to eliminate any anarchist who claimed the necessity of insurrection and whom
he considers a grave danger to the system and his miserable social class of
parasitic defenders of law and order.
On September 17 1996, a second wave of raids took place resulting in over
sixty anarchists being formally accused of belonging to a hierarchical armed
clandestine organisation. Arrest warrants were issued for 29 of them, some
of whom were already in prison on various charges. That same day judges Marini
and Ionta of Rome called a press conference to show off the result of their
brilliant operation. They announced that they had just disbanded a criminal
armed gang named ORAI (Revolutionary Organisation of Insurrectional Anarchists),
a strange name that had never been heard before. They also stated they had
found the leader of the gang, a well known anarchist, Alfredo Maria Bonanno,
who has been active in the struggle for years, mainly through his insurrectionalist
theses in anarchist publications Anarchismo, ProvocAzione and Canenero of
which he was editor. For decades various judges had tried to silence him with
accusations related to these and other publications, without much success.
Then, thanks to Marini’s theatrical coup, he and many other comrades
were tried and found guilty on heavy criminal charges.
At the first appeal trial some of these charges were dropped and a number
pf comrades were acquitted. Those who remained on the ‘guilty’
list had a considerable number of years added to their sentences. So, on April
20 this year, at the second and final appeal at the Court of Cassation in
Rome, the following sentences were confirmed: Alfredo Bonanno – 6 years;
Angela Maria (Marina) Lo Vecchio – 15 years; Orlando Campo – 10
years and Carlo Tesseri – 3 years and nine months. Two others, Gregorian
Garagin and Francesco Porcu, are already in prison serving sentences of 30
years and life respectively. Rose Ann Scrocco, also sentenced to 30 years,
is fortunately still a fugitive.
So, after so many years and so many words, this judicial farce finally reached
its conclusion on April 20, almost in silence.
We know that the comrades are not spending their lives behind bars for the
‘crimes’ they have been accused of, but because they are a thorn
in the side of power. The system fears what it does not know and will never
understand: the thousand ways it can be attacked and subverted, without anyone
giving or taking orders. Measures such as this abject frameup dreamed up by
one of its zealous servants do nothing to check wild insurgency against the
existent, but push us all, comrades and rebels everywhere, to sharpen our
steps in the subversion and destruction of the present order. Our passion
for freedom, and our disgust towards prison, cops, judges and all their accomplices,
continue to grow unbound.
Insurrection now!
Destroy all prisons!
A few Brixton anarchists
Here are the addresses of the comrades imprisoned as a consequence of this
trial:
Angela Maria Lo Vecchio, via Bartolo Longo, 92, 00156 – ROME.
Alfredo Maria Bonanno, via Papiniano, 1, 34133 – TRIESTE.
Carlo Tesseri, c.c. La Dozza, via del Gomito, 2, 40100 – BOLOGNA.
Orlando Campo, via Raffaele Majetti, 165, 00156 – ROME.
Gregorian Garagin, via Leopardi 2, 61034 – FOSSOMBRONE.
Francesco Porcu, via Provinciale San Biagio, 81030 – CARINOLA.
For further information contact us
elephantx2003@yahoo.com
www.frameup.tk