On the 22nd January 2010 will begin in Lisbon the trial against the eleven persons detained during the police repression of the “antiauthoritarian demonstration against fascism and capitalism” held in Lisbon on 25th April 2007. These eleven persons are accused of “aggression, aggravated offences and civil disobedience” and they can be punished with prison sentences between 6 months and 5 years.
The first session of the trial was held on the morning of the last December 7th, but it’s only use was for the judge to postpone the beginning of the trial due to a procedural error concerning the notification of the accused. The hearings of the testimonies were scheduled for the next four months.
Incredibly, the Lisbon Justice Campus was completely taken by police agents both in uniform and undercover, in a gigantic operation orchestrated in order to intimidate the accused and to dissuade any attempt to protest. Some court employees tried to illegally obstruct the access to the court, while in the surroundings people were being stopped, identified and inspected by the police. Even though this police harassment, 30 daring comrades demonstrated with a support banner in front of the judicial campus, situated in one of Lisbon’s richest districts.
Even though the media campaign against the “anarcho-radicals” undertaken by the police in the last two years - with disgusting episodes of defamation of the accused - we should point that no journalist from the corporate media was present at the court to cover the trial. The media judgment has already been made, now the judicial farce must be consummated in secret...
Background of this case
The origin of this case goes back to 25th April 2007, when an “antiauthoritarian demonstration against fascism and capitalism” was held in Lisbon as a response to the increasing strength of the extreme-right in that period. The message of the demonstration, held in the day of the anniversary of the overthrow of the fascist regime in 1974, was clear: against fascism, but also against capitalism and state authority.
The demonstration begun at 6:00 pm and gathered more than 500 demonstrators, something very unusual in Portugal for a demonstration with such antiauthoritarian and anticapitalist content.
The police followed the demonstration but did not intervene until the end of the march in Largo do Camões (Camões Square). After the end of the demonstration, a group of 150 people continued the demonstration trough the Chiado area. In Rua do Carmo (Carmo Street), without any warning, the anti-riot cops blocked both ends of the street and started beating everybody, including demonstrators and people who were just walking by.
In the course of this police intervention, several people were injured, and eleven demonstrators were arrested. The PSP (“Polícia de Segurança Pública” – Public Security Police) Command immediately started a campaign on the mass media in order to justify the brutal intervention of the riot cops, arguing that the demonstrators were attacking people and goods, that they were preparing molotov cocktails and that the police had only intervened after very explicit warnings.
None of this is true, as the police didn’t try to disperse anybody. They only wanted to beat the hell out of the demonstrators. Those who were unfortunate to fall on the floor were strongly beaten with the batons and boots of the riot cops. One of the police commanders present on the spot was even heard shouting “Beat that fucking commies!”. The persecution of the demonstrators continued trough the streets of Lisbon Downtown. The number of people injured by the police was impossible to quantify. The only aggressions against the police can only be attributed to legitimate self-defence.
Because we are in total solidarity with motivations and contents of the 25th April 2007 demonstration and because the prosecuted in this trial could be any of us, we make an appeal for international solidarity against the judicial farce that will take place at the Parque das Nações Court in Lisbon, during the next months.
IWA – Portuguese Section
