inoltro, forse leander ha piu' info .... baci ^_^
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[NextGenderation]
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Hi,
great news: The Federal Court of Justice has decided
yesterday not to
decide this week about the prosecutors complaint
against the temporary
release from custody. Instead the judges seem to have
realised that a
much more important issue is at stake: the question
whether section
129a, the terrorism law, applies at all. Not only for
Andrej's case
(and
the other 6 concerned), but it is thinkable that this
is going to turn
into a fundamental decision on the definition of
'terrorism' and
whether
arson without hurting human beings can be 'terrorist'.
This is a great step for humanity (or may be) and at
the same time will
be a very scary time for our family, and friends.
I'm sending you some English language material: an
article from this
week's Der Spiegel (Germany's most influential weekly
magazine), a
press
release commenting on yesterday's court decision, a
link to two shows
on
National Public Radio and Free Speech Radio Network.
There's more at the English language section of
http://einstellung.so36.net/en
Please consider subscribing to our English language
newsletter - just
send an empty email to
einstellung-news-subscribe@???.
Also we continue to depend on donations - please keep
pointing people
to
http://einstellung.so36.net/en/donations. For
donations from outside
Europe we are trying to find an easier way than the
typical European
money transfer: please contact einstellung@???
for details.
Anna
_________________
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,502178,00.html
IVORY TOWER ARSON ARREST
Berlin Struggles to Define 'Terror'
By Caroline Schmidt and Dietmar Hipp
Just what who is a terrorist? It is a question Germany
is wrestling
with
after a Berlin sociology professor was imprisoned for
terrorism after
allegedly helping leftists torch cars.
Forty-year-old Berlin lawyer Christina Clemm was just
10 during the
so-called German Autumn of 1977: Her recollections of
the historic
showdown between the German state and its enemies, the
left-wing
underground organization known as the Red Army Faction
or
"Baader-Meinhof Gang," are vague. But when Clemm
visited her client,
36-year-old Andrej H., in Berlin's Moabit prison early
last week, the
atmosphere there was reminiscent of those dark years
of leftist
terrorism.
The lawyer was only allowed to shake her client's hand
in the presence
of a prison guard. A plate of bullet-proof glass an
inch thick
separated
them during their conversation. In addition, Clemm's
mail was
intercepted. Andrej H. told her he was being held in
solitary
confinement 23 hours a day. He was only allowed out
for exercise for
one
hour a day with two other prisoners. He is being held
under paragraph
129a of German criminal law -- the paragraph that
deals with terrorism.
And yet the academic -- who holds a Ph.D. in
sociology, lectures at
Humboldt University in Berlin and has three children
-- is not even a
prime suspect in the arson investigation that led to
his arrest,
according to the warrant. The federal prosecutor's
office believes H.
and an academic from Leipzig are the intellectual
leaders of the
left-wing "militante gruppe" (mg), a left-wing faction
which has
allegedly been responsible for about 25 arson attacks
since 2001. Three
other men from Berlin have also been detained. They
were seen trying to
place incendiary devices underneath trucks belonging
to the German
military.
How Far Can the State Go?
The move by the investigators to use all severity in
dealing with such
a
case is very likely a precedent -- and seems destined
to trigger a
debate as to the appropriateness of the approach. The
central questions
are clear: In the age of bloody suicide attacks, what
constitutes
terrorism? And: How far can the state go?
More than 3,000 supporters, including academics from
Germany and the
United States, have signed a letter of protest
"Against the
Criminalization of Critical Science." Last week,
renowned US
sociologists Saskia Sassen and Richard Sennett
published an article
called "Guantánamo in Germany" in the British
Guardian, in which they
write: "We are struck by the gray zones of fragile
civil liberties and
confused state power that this case reveals."
The German Green Party has already said that Minister
of Justice
Brigitte Zypries has some explaining to do and has
promised to pursue
the issue in Germany's parliament, the Bundestag.
Green Party Floor
Leader Renate Künast has criticized the investigation
as "lacking a
legal basis." Former Bundestag Vice President Burkhard
Hirsch, of the
liberal Free Democrats, spoke of an inappropriate
attempt to turn small
militant groups into terrorists. "Torching a car is no
small offense,"
was the brusque retort of Dieter Wiefelspütz, the
domestic policy
spokesman for the Social Democrats. One could very
well speak of
terrorism in such a case, Wiefelspütz added.
The bitter debate comes four years after a 2003 legal
reform pushed
through by the government of then Chancellor Gerhard
Schröder which
introduced new guidelines for the prosecution of
terrorist acts. Coming
not long after the al-Qaida attacks in the US, the
reform took aim at
international terrorist organizations -- and made the
prosecution of
those groups much easier. At the same time, Schröder's
SPD and his
coalition partners the Greens wanted to limit the
application of terror
laws -- originally passed to deal with Red Army
Faction attacks in the
1970s -- domestically. There were also European Union
guidelines to
take
into consideration.
Arson as Terror
Ever since, arson has only been punishable as
terrorism when carried
out
with the intention of "significantly intimidating the
population" or
"eliminating or seriously damaging the foundations of
a state or an
international organization." Moreover, attacks need to
be capable of
causing "considerable" damage to the state. Jerzy
Montag, one of the
Green Party's legal experts, praised the new law at
the time by
pointing
out that it makes it impossible to prosecute "every
little thing" as a
case of terrorism.
But how do you know when a state is severely damaged?
Is every
politically motivated crime equal to terrorism, or
should the case of
Andrej H. be approached solely as attempted arson?
A lack of case law means that an authoritative answer
to these
questions
does not yet exist. The only relevant court decision
was handed down by
the Federal Court of Justice in its decision that the
"pinprick tactic"
of right-wing arsonists can be defined as terrorism --
because
right-wing arsons are carried out with the intention
of driving "all
foreigners" out of the region. Cologne-based professor
Claus Kress
believes that terrorism charges could be leveled
against Andrej H. and
the other suspects as long as "more than only marginal
elements of the
German military were destroyed." But, he adds, setting
fire to single
vehicles is not enough.
Criminal law professor Thomas Weigend likewise finds
fault with a broad
application of terror laws. In a letter to former head
federal
prosecutor Kay Nehm, he found fault with the
"excessive reach" of the
2003 law and called for a restrictive interpretation.
An attack, he
wrote, should be classified as terrorist only when
"the state in its
entirety suffers damage," as in the case of
"large-scale attacks on the
energy supply," for example. Exceptions should be made
only for extreme
violence against humans.
Unusually Sloppy
Even justices at the Federal Court of Justice in
Karlsruhe, Germany's
highest appellate court, take this view. "Only limited
effects with no
broader impact are not sufficient, according to the
letter of the law,"
two magistrates at the Federal Court of Justice note.
According to that
interpretation, the militante gruppe Andrej H. is
accused of leading
wouldn't be a terrorist organization at all. Even if
the left-wing
radicals have declared war on the state and have set
fire to police
cars, job centers and a supermarket, they have taken
care not to hurt
anybody. Contrary to the Red Army Faction, explosives
or firearms are
not part of their weapons arsenal.
But what seems like an academic quibble is vital for
the future of the
investigation into Andrej H's case. Only if the case
is classified as
terrorism does it become part of Federal Prosecutor
Monika Harms'
portfolio -- and only then can investigators make use
of the full range
of surveillance measures. Most importantly, it is only
then that
alleged
behind-the-scenes conspirators can be prosecuted even
when they have
not
contributed to specific crimes in a tangible way -- as
with Andrej H.
Investigators tapped his phone, traced his movements
by following his
mobile phone signal, read his e-mails and maintained
video surveillance
on both entrances to his house for almost a year.
If the arrest warrant issued by the Federal Court of
Justice is to be
believed, these measures yielded little: Policemen saw
the avowed G-8
critic meet with one of the alleged arsonists in a
café in February
and
April of this year. The meetings are said to have been
arranged in
secret through the e-mail account
"opelprolls@???." The
investigators believe H. is the intellectual
mastermind behind the
group
because his dissertation on urban renewal features the
word
"gentrification," which also appears in the
communiqués of the
"militante gruppe."
Last week, Ulrich Hebenstreit, the judge overseeing
Andrej H's
detention, carefully distanced himself from the
initial accusations and
temporarily rescinded the unusually sloppy arrest
warrant against
Andrej
H. Hebenstreit argued that H. continues to be
"strongly suspected of
having committed an offense," but that sufficient
evidence "regarding
direct participation in one or more attacks by the
'militante gruppe'
is
not yet extant."
______________________
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13831842
Professor's Research Results in Terrorism Charges
All Things Considered, August 21, 2007 · Prominent
German academic
Andrej Holm was arrested three weeks ago on terrorism
charges.
According
to the arrest warrant, Professor Holm was linked to a
militant group
because of his research into "gentrification."
Robert Siegel talks with Kate Connolly, Berlin
correspondent for The
Guardian newspaper.
[If you have trouble opening the file: I can send it
to you and it will
soon also be here:
http://einstellung.so36.net/en]
______________________
http://www.fsrn.org/news/20070823_news.html
Download
http://www.fsrn.org/news/audio/20070823hifi.mp3
Stream
http://www.fsrn.org/news/audio/20070823.ram
Critics Say Germany's Anti-Terrorism Laws Target
Leftist Intellectuals
(3:46)
German sociologist Andrej Holm, was released on bail
late yesterday,
after spending 3 weeks in jail on suspicion of being a
member of a
terrorist organization. Holm was arrested under
section 129a of
Germany's anti-terrorist legislation, because of his
association with 3
other men who were arrested after allegedly attempting
to set fire to a
military vehicle. The German Federal Police suspect
that all these
people are members of a terrorist organisation known
as the Militant
Group - and have been holding them in pre-trial
detention under section
129a of the German Anti-Terrorism Law. Cinnamon
Nippard has more from
Berlin.
_______________
Coalition for the Immediate End to the §129a
Proceedings
c/o Haus der Demokratie und Menschenrechte e.V.
Greifswalder Strasse 4
D-10405 Berlin
Germany
einstellung[at]so36.net
http://einstellung.so36.net
Berlin, 30th August 2007
Press Release
Sociologist Remains Free. Federal Prosecution
postpones the decision to
revoke temporary release
Yesterday afternoon the Third Criminal Division of the
Federal Court of
Justice declared that the decision over the appeal
against Andrej H.'s
temporary release from custody has been postponed
until October.
According to the judge there are outstanding legal
questions as to
whether the anti-terrorist legislation, the "§129a",
can even be
applied
to this case at all. The lawyers acting on behalf of
Florian L., Oliver
R. and Axel H. believe that this discussion over the
premises of the
charges will also have an effect on their clients'
situation.
"The Federal Prosecution is completely lost over its
construction of a
terrorist organisation", Volker Eick, a spokesperson
for the Coalition
for the Immediate End to the 129a Proceedings, said.
"The accusation of
terrorism against the three people arrested in
Brandenburg is based
upon
two meetings with Andrej H. Whatever is decided, we
demand the
immediate
release of Oliver, Florian and Axel", Eick added.
For Andrej H. the judge's decision means he will
remain out of custody
until the beginning of October. "We are of the opinion
that this will
continue to be the case because by October the claim
that he may
abscond
will be have been clearly shown to be false", Eick
stated.
Further information in English:
http://einstellung.so36.net/en
Telephone number:
01577-4300652
Lawyer:
Christina Clemm
Tel.: +49-30-25293336
_____________________________________
--
Bitte benutzt meinen neuen GPG-Schluessel /
please use my new GPG key:
http://keys.indymedia.org/cgi-bin/lookup?op=get&search=DF54007A8BD027FC
Fingerprint
D8CA 5A27 CF02 D93E 8713 BB16 DF54 007A 8BD0 27FC
Please send me yours again!
Bitte schickt mir Eure Schluessel nochmal!
Protect your privacy / mehr Datenschutz:
http://cryptocd.org/online_version/
http://www.scroogle.org/
Das alles verhindert nicht, dass verschiedene
Sicherheitsorgane des
Landes mitlesen, ich bitte also von Zusendungen mit
den Stichworten
'Gentrifizierung' oder 'Inhalt der Schwarzen Tuete'
abzusehen.
An die Damen und Herren von den Sicherheitsorganen:
Letzteres war
*Ironie*.
____________________________________________________________________________________
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