Anti-Prison Activists’ Houses Searched in Dresden

On the morning of the 4th August 2004, around 8am, Aachen police and the Saxony LKA (crime investigation) searched the shared flat of two anti-prison activists in Dresden. The search, authorised by the local court in Aachen, started with the door being kicked in. Computers and mobile phones were confiscated, as well as private correspondence with prisoners. The raid happened with the excuse that both are ‘suspected of conspiring to commit armed robbery’ with prisoners in Aachen. Both activists have been working against the isolation of prisoners for years, by engaging in correspondence with prisoners and their relatives, as well as regularly visiting people in prison to maintain the social contact with prisoners and address the imposed isolation. Another focus of their work involves questioning the necessity of prisons.

After a spectacular arrest in Aachen on the 28th June 2004, three Spanish and one Belgian were taken into custody.

Amongst their usual anti-repression work the two women in Dresden were trying to find solicitors for those imprisoned in Aachen. They were also corresponding with them and trying to arrange visits. As a result of this and a map of Dresden with police stations and weapon shops marked on it found during the arrests, the State prosecution in Aachen construed a robbery in the Dresden area jointly planned by the prisoners and the Dresden activists. With this, the commitment to people in prison is slandered as a criminal action. The reasoning for the investigation is as follows: “There exist enough concrete clues to assume that those charged and arrested in Aachen could not have found out about the local situation in Dresden themselves, but that they must have received support from other people. According to police information, one of those imprisoned in Aachen as well as the women in Dresden can be considered members of the left-extremist scene. Both [women in Dresden] sought out the State prosecution in Aachen immediately after the arrests requesting visiting permission for the prisoners.”

One of those involved comments on the searches as follows: “We must question a society that uses prisons and sees them as a legitimate means of repression, to make people functional citizens, and as a consequence criminalises legal anti-repression work” Those affected will use legal means to challenge the police actions and make an issue of this.

Rote Hilfe, Dresden group,  dresden@rote-hilfe.de