At 17/9 , a double solid fence was raised on the upper parts of the walls on the courtyard of the white cells in Koridalos prison, so that the horizon is invisible again for the alleged members of the "17th of November" guerilla group. They refused to allow the condition of the special wing of the prison to deteriorate and they were forced back to their cells.

At 18/9 they decided to proceed to the utter way of protesting: they would go on a hunger strike, following one another, every Saturday. Since the court refused to call the trial "political", they only demand that they should be treated as any other prisoner of the penal code -as they were tried- and stop being confined in those grey tombs with restrictions of communication even with their attorneys.

The condition of some of the political prisoners is really serious and there are many protests against the special conditions of confinment but the greek state is still playing deaf.

[ thessaloniki imc | athens imc ]

They were all confined by the anti-terrorist division for many days, without being able to contact an attorney, being harassed, threatened and sometimes beaten. They were also given bottled water, juices and cofees that had a strange taste and produced as symptoms intence headaches, loss of memory and also anxiety and panic that caused a lack of will. Most of them were forced to sign pre-completed statements that look alike, some were kept wake for more than 40 hours, while being threatened and interogated, while the juridicial axioms of "guilty untill proven innocent" and "a guilty cannot testify against another guilty" were not taken under serious consideration.

Savvas Xiros was kept heavily injured in a hospital for many days without being able to contact his lawyer (who was led to resign, incapable as he was to practice his proffesion), his relatives and was guarded, tortured and interogated. Vasilis Tzortzatos was brutally beaten all over his body and striped naked; he was also being given some pills for many months. From the 2.5 m2 windowless cells of the anti-terrorist division they were transferred to a special wing of the Koridalos prison. There, in a state of sensitive isolation, they are confined for the most part of the day in a 10 m2 moist and foul-smelling cell, except for the time they can spend in the "courtyard", a 40 m2, 10 m deep well. They are not allowed in the workshops or the library and had there been no reaction (both outside and inside the prison) they would only be allowed to go to the "courtyard" one at a time.

After the appeal will have been tried, the political prisoners are planned to be moved to the special wing of Larissa prison, which is reserved for "terrorists" (whoever may be defined by the state to be). There there are not only worse conditions of confinment but they will also be far away from their attorneys, friends and famillies.

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