TIME IS RUNNING OUT - Solidarity with Dimitri Koufontinas

TIME IS RUNNING OUT - Solidarity with Dimitri Koufontinas

Urgent update on the situation of Dimitri Koufontinas, on hunger strike since January 8. His decision to undertake this form of protest is a consequence of his transfer, which took place at the beginning of January, from the rural prison of Kassevetia to that of Domokos. The days of hunger strike are now many, he is 64 years old and this is the fifth hunger strike he has undertaken since he is in prison (2002). He is in Lamia hospital, he is unconscious for most of the day. Doctors say that at any moment he could have a sudden collapse and die or go into a coma.

A new law was approved in Greece earlier this month in the context of prison reform. This law, among other regulations that worsen life inside prisons, has established that those convicted of terrorism cannot have access to rural prisons (more "open" prisons to which long-term prisoners have access) . This law is retroactive and its approval immediately activated the bureaucratic process for the transfer of Dimitri. The same government text establishes that inmates who no longer have the right to stay in rural prisons are transferred from the latter to the last prison they were in: in the case of Koufontinas, he should therefore have been transferred to the Athenian prison of Koridallos.

However, the prison administration decided to send him to the Domokos maximum security prison. To give the transfer a semblance of legitimacy, the prison administration also falsified the documents, writing that the comrade would be taken from Kassevitia to Koridallos and then from there to Domokos, which never happened.

The differentiation of circuits for prisoners theoretically does not exist in Greece, also thanks to the notable protests carried out by inmates - and also outside - a few years ago when there was an attempt to introduce the principle of differentiation of regimes here too (Koufontinas had been one of the protagonists). But in recent years, the prison administration's attempt is to make Domokos prison an institution with stricter rules for "special" prisoners: here are imprisoned some of the prisoners convicted of criminal association in the trial against Alba Dorata and there are also comrades Nikos Matsiotis and Yannis Dimitrakis (also on hunger strike since January 16 in solidarity with Koufodinas).

Faced with these facts, Koufodinas decided to react in the only way he thought was appropriate, starting an indefinite hunger strike, asking to be transferred to Koridallos prison, as the same text of the law would establish.

Here in Greece we are trying to put in place initiatives that are as incisive and as broad as possible to try to put pressure on the executive and the prison administration.

Given the situation of very high repression that the Hellenic country is experiencing at the moment, with the objective difficulty of taking to the streets, now more than ever doing initiatives (even if only of testimony and "denunciation") in other countries could be important.

Time is running out ...