Translated from the original at Barrikade.de
The odious spectacle of the powerful known as the G20 summit in Hamburg has been over for a year - but is it over? Not really, and not for everyone. Six of the more than 50 people arrested following the summit are still imprisoned in Billwerder Prison, on the eastern edge of Hamburg. Four people are still on trial almost daily until the end of July. New proceedings on the G20 are opened almost every week.
More than 50 defendants have already been sentenced to hefty prison terms, suspended sentences or fines. Many of the over 400 people temporarily arrested and detained at the beginning of July are still waiting to be tried. Apartments, houses, libraries and projects have been and are still being searched, hundreds of "wanted" photographs are still being published a veritable manhunt organized by the prosecution and the press continues.
This has also been happening abroad since April. Not only in Switzerland, Denmark, Greece, Spain and Italy, but also in countries such as Hungary, Belgium and Austria. On May 5, 2018, house searches were organised in France, Spain, Italy and Bremgarten AG, with martial contingents such as special forces, officers in disguise, dogs and more repressive forces. This has occurred with the KuZeB, for example, right in front of the residents.
Two G20 prisoners were expelled from Germany during ongoing criminal proceedings and were granted a 5-year entry ban. Their inclusion in the SIS II Schengen Blocking System means that the two non-EU citizens can no longer enter any Schengen country. And this completely independent of the outcome of the judicial criminal proceedings.
Even directly before the G20 summit, people were prevented from entering the country and it was only in urgent legal proceedings that most of them succeeded in exercising their allegedly guaranteed right to freedom of expression, assembly and demonstration.
One year after the "summit of bows," we want to tell you about the G20 prisoners, defendants & convicts for one evening. We will host the solidarity campaign "United We Stand" and discuss in particular about the fight against entry bans and expulsion orders, and what this could mean for all of us in the future. Activists from non-EU countries and countries that are not party to the Schengen Agreement are particularly hard hit by these measures.
Attendants will include a NoG20 activist and lawyer for migration law, who at the time fought entry bans and is now preparing for the great battle before the various administrative courts against the expulsion orders of the Hamburg Foreigners Authority, along with a NoG20 activist who has been involved from the outset in accompanying and supporting the G20 prisoners, ex-prisoners, defendants, their families and comrades.
Many of the imprisoned NoG20 activists have had no contact with other people in Hamburg to date and had to or must remain in the city for months or come back for appeal proceedings before conviction in the first instance. Of course, they want to visit their people in prison, attend the trials and support them in the appeal negotiations. So, despite all the horror of repression, incredibly beautiful, valuable, great, interesting, loving and intensive friendships have emerged from Hamburg via Amsterdam to Warsaw, from Feltre via Paris and Catania to Moscow and back and forth.
United We Stand!
Discuss with us:
4.7.18, 20h Rössli, Riding School Bern
13.7.18, 20h Information shop Kasama, Zurich