25 June, L’Aquila: Protest against “hard prisons” and against administrative detention – Free Bilal Kayed

Saturday, 25 June
11:00 am – 2:00 pm
March through l’Aquila to the prison
L’Aquila, Italy

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Fronte Palestina Milano is joining with with Assosiation/Collective Uniti contro la Repressione at a protest on 25th June 2016 in L’Aquila, a city in the center of Italy  where it will hold  a protest across the city and a picket outside the main prison against the 41bis hard prison regime and its brutality and escalation such as torture inside the prison,  abuses by the police inside the prison, solitary confinement, and hard restrictions for the prisoners.

The 41bis Hard prison regime:

In Italian law, Article 41-bis of the Prison Administration Act (also known as Italy’s “hard prison regime”) is a provision that allows the Minister of Justice or the Minister of the Interior to suspend certain prison regulations.

At the beginning it was used against people imprisoned for particular crimes: Mafia involvement; drug-trafficking; homicide; aggravated robbery and extortion; kidnapping; importation, buying, possession or sale of huge amounts of drugs;

After 2001 G8 in Genoa, this law has been used for all crimes committed for “terrorism” or for subversion of the constitutional system.

 It is suspended only when a prisoner co-operates with the authorities, when a court annuls it, or when a prisoner dies.

The Surveillance Court of Rome is the court competent on nationwide level on appeals against the 41-bis decree

Restrictive measures

The system was essentially intended to cut inmates off completely from their original milieu and to separate them from their former criminal associates. Measures normally include bans on:

the use of the telephone;

all association or correspondence with other prisoners;

meetings with third parties;

receiving or sending sums of money over a set amount;

receiving parcels (other than those containing linen) from the outside;

organizing cultural, recreational or sporting activities;

voting or standing in elections for prisoner representatives; and taking part in arts-and-crafts activities, etc.,

as well as restrictions on visits from members of the family (once per month and visitors are only allowed to communicate by intercom through thick glass).

Since we fight against this inhuman and degrading treatment given to the prisoners subject to the special detainment or “hard prison” regime, in so far as Law 279 turned the transitory, exceptional nature of the penitentiary system detailed in article 41 bis into an integral part of the Penitentiary Act, We endorse the call for action for BILAL KAYED and all Palestinian prisoners and ask for the end of Administrative detention as well as the Italian 41Bis hard prison regime.

Fronte Palestina Milan will join l’Aquila’s protest:  some comrades are going to L’Aquila and will read its statement which speaks about Bilal Kayed and all prisoners.

More information (in Italian):  http://samidoun.net/site/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/volantino_l27aquila-2-3.pdf