USA: amnesty calls begin as soon as Manning is sentenced to 35 years

Whistleblower Bradley Manning was sentenced today by an opaque military court to 35 years of prison.

As soon as the sentence was known, the Bradley Manning Support Campaign began a signature collection to ask the President for a pardon. Meanwhile Amnesty International asked Obama to commute the sentence to time served. They say:

Instead of fighting tooth and nail to lock him up for several decades, the US government should turn its attention to investigating and delivering justice for the serious human rights abuses committed by its officials in the name of countering terror.

Bahrain: blogger and journalist aide arrested

From the Bahrain Center for Human Rights:

Bahrain: Arrest of blogger and media fixer Mohamed Hassan

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses grave concern in regards to the recent arrest of blogger and media fixer Mohamed Hassan (27) during a dawn raid on his home.  His whereabouts and charges are still unknown and he has not made any communication with family and lawyer until the time of writing this report.

At around 3am on 31 July 2013, masked men in civilian clothes belonging to the Ministry of Interior raided the house of blogger Mohammed Hassan and arrested him after presenting an arrest warrant but without giving any justification for the arrest or the charges pressed against him. They also confiscated his electronic devices.

This is not the first time blogger Mohammed Hassan is targeted by the authorities in Bahrain.

Mohammed Hassan, also known as @Safybh, was known for expressing his views on twitter and on his blog http://safybh.wordpress.com/ in support of the struggle for freedom and democracy in Bahrain. He stopped tweeting and blogging since April 2013.

Hassan was arrested before on 21 April 2012 while he was escorting reporters to protesting villages to show them the violations of the authorities against peaceful protesters. He was hit with a gun barrel in his leg and reportedly severely beaten before getting arrested. He was denied access to a lawyer, and released the next day. He was then arrested again on 22 April 2012 at a checkpoint in Sanabis with journalist Colin Freeman from The Sunday Telegraph. They were taken to the Exhibition Center police station. Hassan was interrogated about his connection to the journalist and they were later released without any charges.  

In June 2012 Mohammed Hassan was summoned for interrogation, and was accused with three charges: writing for websites and newspapers without a license, illegal gathering and tweeting. He wrote later on his twitter: "They asked me about all tweets, even the ones where I say goodnight, I was also questioned about the articles I write and the journalists I know, especially when I was arrested and beaten last April. I was accused of calling for “unlicensed" marches when I invited people to [participate in] Nabeel Rajab’s “Thank you” march, [the] problem is: it was actually licensed. After asking a lawyer I realized that I was correct about not needing a license for blogging or writing an op-ed for a website."

... continue reading at BCHR.

Political repression of Basque youths continues unabated

Two more young Basques have seen confirmed their ideological punishment of six years in prison for the "crime" of illegal association, i.e. for being members of a political organization arbitrarily banned by the Spanish imperialist authorities.

This very same Spanish Supreme Court just the day before dramatically reduced a sentence against Spanish corrupt ringleader Jaume Matas (ex-President of Balears, PP) from six years to a mere nine months (so he won't go to prison).

The sentence reduction, by means of declaring the politician innocent of most charges, was issued by a tribunal which is controlled by the ultra-catholic greedy power-mongering cult Opus Dei and on whose likely deep corruption as institution there are already appearing detailed articles and even a Facebook group. 

Back to incorruptible Basque revolutionaries, it is expected that, in the next weeks, other trials for political activity will be reactivated in the Spanish Supreme Court. 

A campaign of civil disobedience, the popular wall already organized in similar cases in order to highlight the dramatic ideological repression that Spain continues exerting against the youth of this oppressed country, is being readied for these cases. 

However what is desirable and democratic is that repression ends at once and that Castile-Spain pulls back its occupation forces behind the 1199 international border.

Note: all links direct to Spanish language articles.

FEMEN jump over the car of Tunisian Islamist PM

The radical feminist group FEMEN jumped in their usual topless style over the official vehicle of Tunisian Prime Minister Ali Laarayedh, when he was leaving the European Parliament see at Brussels. 

They demand freedom for the four members of their organization repressed by the Islamist government in Tunisia. 

The intervention of the fanatic leader's escort has been criticized by the activists as very violent, causing axphysia to one of them identified as Margo (the one being held by the leg in the photo), who lost consciousness and is still suffering headaches and other health problems. FEMEN considers that the life of Margo was put at risk.

Three Tunisian members of FEMEN were arrested by the Islamist regime on the grounds of "offense to morals" and "public disorder" after a topless protest in Tunis in solidarity with also imprisoned feminist Amina Sbui (aka Amina Tyler). 

Amina, who was the first Tunisian woman to dare to appear topless in Internet, as a protest against machista oppression is being tried secretly in Kairouan and has already been fined for having a pepper spray (a self-defense weapon which the authorities describe erroneously as "incendiary weapon").

FEMEN also demands the freedom of blogger Jabeur Mejri and all other people repressed by the Islamists in the North African country for using their undeniable right to freedom of expression. They accuse the Islamization policies of threatening women with torture, murder and mutilation (this last rather applies to Egypt). 

Laarayedh, who claims to ignore who are FEMEN (oh, c'mon!), admitted that he wants to push ahead the new Islamist constitution through a mere parliamentary vote, because he fears that a referendum would block it. He claims that the European Union supports his plans.

Source: Webguerrillero[es] (includes video of the action).

Update on anarchist arrests in Catalonia and Spain

Some more info is showing up on the arrests of several anarchists in Catalonia and other Iberian localities. The arrested are accused of being the administrators of a Facebook group known as Kolektivo Bandera Negra (Black Flag Kollektivity), which was used for counter-information and anarchist propaganda. 

The relationship between the arrested and the Ateneu Llibertari of Sabadell was at best accidental (one of their members may have gone a few times to this social center), what was no problem for police to raid the Ateneu mercilessly and take all the documentation in it, including hard disks and such. 

There were also police raids in Málaga (Andalusia), Zaragoza (Aragon) and Avinyó (Catalonia). So far there is no known evidence of any "terrorist" link, in spite of wild bourgeois media speculations.

In a single day, with this and other operatives (against Basque Independentists, striking teachers in Aragon and even a Venezuelan PSUV activist arrested after a conference in Valencia), 21 people were arrested for crimes of political opinion in the Kingdom of Spain. 

Source[es]: A Las Barricadas (via Borroka Garaia Da!)


Update: the Grupo Bandera Negra (Black Flag Group) of Madrid denies any link with the arrested but shows its solidarity with them and especially with the Ateneu Llibertari of Sabadell → Juventudes Libertarias de Madrid[es].

Basque Country: prisoner of consciousness Urtza Alkorta arrested after police forcibly breaches 'human wall'

Urtza Alkorta (pictured below), victim of the Spanish Inquisition political persecution of Basque independentism and worker power, who was being protected by hundreds forming a "human wall" at her hometown of Ondarroa, was arrested this morning.

Western Basque police corps Ertzaintza arrested this victim of political persecution by Spanish imperialism after forcibly breaching the "human wall" organized in the pedestrian bridge of the fishing town.

They also arrested two other people under probably false accusations.

While commanding the semi-autonomous police forces to intervene in favor of Spanish political persecution against Basque citizens (again), the Western Basque regional president, I. Urkullu (EAJ-PNV), seemed only concerned about the cost to the public coffers, claiming in his typically hypocritical style that it was "a waste of resources". 

Sources: Naiz Info (link 1, link 2), Borroka Garaia Da!

Basque Country: another massive nonviolent resistance action for Inquisition victim

Urtza Alkorta addresses her supporters

Urtza Alkorta is the last one still at large of the eight youths sentenced by the Spanish Inquisition (AN) to six years of prison for their political activities under the doctrine "everything is ETA". Six of them were arrested in the context of a similar nonviolent resistance action in Donostia (San Sebastian), after two failed attempts, while another one walked herself to prison with her baby after that action for obvious reasons of child safety. 

Urtza has chosen instead her hometown of Ondarroa (Biscay), which has dressed itself of orange in an open nonviolent challenge to the Spanish injustice and its Basque lackeys. They await there the likely intervention of police tonight.

Source, photogallery and video: Borroka Garaia Da![eu]

Update (May 13): Police forces approached the protest thrice yesterday (noon after midnight and before dawn) but did not dare to attempt the arrest, as hundreds formed a massive "human wall" at the bridge, making police intervention impossible without causing a massacre:

The Town Hall of Ondarroa has denounced that attempting to arrest Urtza Alkorta is a direct attack against the peace process. 

Urtza herself also denounced the collaborationist attitude of the conservative Basque Nationalist Party, which controls the Western Basque police corps nowadays. She said that "they must make a choice" between Spain and the Basque People, that this is not anymore just the Basque Patriotic Left but the whole Basque People which they are fighting against.

Sources: Naiz Info (link 1, link 2), Twitter #ResistOndarru.


Update (May 14): Four days and nights of resistance completed successfully. Today is the fifth one. Groups of activists from all the country are rotating in the task of manning the human wall (potentially risking their lives if police acts recklessly) against neofascist imperialist repression.

Source: Bilboko Branka[eu].