Larissa, Greece - 22 November, trial of Alfredo Bonanno and Christos Stratigopoulos

Alfredo M. Bonnano has been released!

In the 22 November trial of Alfredo and Christos for bank robbery in Trikala, Alfredo M. Bonnano was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment (which practically means that with the time served so far and the fact that he is over 70 years old, he was released). Christos Stratigopoulos (who took responsibility for the action) was sentenced to 8 years and 9 months and with the Greek law will probably be released at the end 2011.

a statement by one of the comrades:

"From the first instance it became clear that the judge and attorney wanted a fast trial without any ideological characteristics and with the only guide being the criminal record of the accused. In short, they wanted to prove that Alfredo Bonanno was the leader, the moral perpetrator of the robbery and that Christos was the pupil, the one who executed the plan.
Yet thanks to the solid evidence, the witnesses who testified in support of the two and the great contribution of the lawyers (Papadakis, Kourtovik, Sineli), these claims collapsed.
It “hurt” them that Alfredo was free, that he has essentially served his sentence – and they looked for any legal or other trick in order to torture him further. And so, from the prison of Larisa he was transported to the city’s police headquarters under the pretext of the approval of his exit from the country by the headquarters in Athens.
There they informed us that apart from the Interpol alert, they would also hold him until their political senior officers would “judge” whether he would be deported in accordance to article 106 of the presidential decree of 2007. Late in the night, after calling a Larisa-based lawyer, we were informed that Alfredo had been arrested anew in accordance to the above article, as he was considered a threat to public security and unwelcome in Greece!
Once again he had to prove the obvious! A 74-year old man with very poor health was considered dangerous. The same went for us, who were waiting outside, the very few comrades sitting at a bench: they sent Riot Police, DIAS and Zita motorcycle cops, undercovers and the anti-terrorist unit to guard us, since we posed a threat to public security!
Faced with this obvious political revanchist action, played within a strategically covered psychological warfare against Alfredo, we had to decide whether to appeal at the Larisa court, which would mean Alfredo would remain detained until the decision was made or until the Greek state would decide to officially deport him. The instant solution given by his lawyers was for him to be released on Tuesday afternoon and to leave on his own from Larisa to Italy through Athens in the coming days.
After everything comrades lived through from the day of their arrest up until yesterday, as well as for the rest of Christos’ days in prison, they wish and we wish to extend a huge “thank you” to all friends and comrades from Konitsa who came to our support, the friends from Ioanina and across Greece as well as abroad who stood by our side, giving us courage and psychological, moral and financial support.
To the comrades we extend our hand, we unite our camaraderie in a dynamic of anarchist solidarity…"