SOLIDARITY

Dear friends*, dear comrades*, after Lina, Jo & Dy, Findus, Jan, Ella, Kevin, Kübel, and the current danger for Adel, we unfortunately have to tell you about another friend and comrade who is in the Moabit pre-trial prison since he was violently taken away from his flat by the Berlin police. The wave of massive repression against leftists in Germany is spreading more and more. Gizmo is a fellow traveller and long-time friend from left-wing circles who has been running a small grocery shop in Berlin-Kreuzberg for a few years, where people in solidarity have also found work. On the basis of a fabricated, very incomplete and once again largely clue-based investigation, heavily armed police officers from the Mobile Intervention Unit of the Berlin State Criminal Police Office burst into his home in the early hours of 9 December 2021, armed with an arrest warrant. They allegedly accused him of trying to set a car on fire. Gizmo was roused from his sleep and directly confronted with severe physical and psychological abuse. Several cops armed with machine guns repeatedly punched and kicked him, deliberately risking serious injury. There were also insults of all kinds from the cops. This extremely brutal action by the Berlin police shocks us but unfortunately does not surprise us, as it is a long-standing tradition and practice of the police. Immediately after the arrest, Gizmo was already complaining of massive pain all over his body and his hands were almost numb from the handcuffing. The cops did not call a doctor, because they of course saw that he was in pain. At the detention centre he was given only ibuprofen, which was not enough to relieve the pain caused by the violence. Gizmo was brought before a judge who considered him a flight risk despite his very stable social environment and therefore sent him directly to Moabit prison. We condemn these inhumane methods of intimidating people to such an extent to make them break.
In this and other cases where anti-fascists* are imprisoned, the aim is – apart from gathering information about left-wing structures – to create a climate of fear. Besides, what can a state that has been financing a neo-Nazi terrorist gang for decades, exporting arms to crisis regions, waging wars of aggression, plundering other countries and spying on its own population tell us about legality and legitimacy?
We call for solidarity with Gizmo!
In the coming days and weeks we will give you more information on how you can support him (letters, donations, etc.) and we will keep you informed about his repression case.

FREE GIZMO , FREE ADEL , FREE ALL ANTIFASCISTS