“Subversive association” proceedings continue
01 May 2003
At a hearing on 15 July in Catanzaro (Calabria, in southern Italy), Cosenza prosecutor Domenico Fiordalisi submitted new evidence to suggest that a group of 20 activists from the Rete del sud ribelle network arrested in raids around southern Italy (in the regions of Campania, Calabria and Apulia) on 15 November 2002 are part of a “subversive association” (see Statewatch news online, November, December 2002). The hearing followed a ruling through which the Court of Cassation annulled a previous decision to free the activists taken by a court in Catanzaro in December, due to irregularities in the composition of the court (see Statewatch vol 13 no 2). The decision that was annulled, had also dismissed allegations that the activist network was in fact a “subversive association” as unfounded.
The second hearing to decide whether the activists should be free and if there is a case for them to answer, saw the prosecution use material, including telephone interceptions (some of which have not been allowed as evidence in other trials involving activists), video footage, material confiscated during raids and police reports by DIGOS (special operations police) to link different political actions and demonstrations undertaken in Italy over the past few years. They included demonstrations held in Naples in March 2001, and in Genoa in July 2001 (see Statewatch vol 11 no 3/4) in which clashes occurred, and in relation to which evidence of widespread police brutality and abuse has also surfaced. The material was used to argue that the activists represent “a dangerous form of association, of a conspiratory and subversive character, that goes beyond a simple criminal organisation”. Its scope, and this reflects the wording of the new European definition of terrorism, “is to block or at least to disturb the activity of the Italian government”. The hearing was adjourned until 23 October 2003, to give defence lawyers the possibility to examine the copious new documentation that has been submitted.
Self-defence training sessions using plexiglass shields, foam padding and gas masks organised prior to the G8 on 16 and 17 July 2001 in the Carlini stadium in Genoa (one of the sites where activists were staying), at which journalists, including foreign correspondents were invited, were described as meetings to organise the destruction of Genoa. The arrested activists, who have been free since the December 2002 decision that was recently annulled, include members of the Disobbedienti (a group that has been organising several civil disobedience actions, particularly in opposition to detention centres for immigrants and more recently against the war in Iraq) and Cobas (a grassroots trade union), among others, but the trial seems to reveal the intention to deliberately confuse political activism with “subversive activity” or “terrorism”.
Il manifesto, 22.6, 13.7, 16.7.03.