Prison of Alicarnassos 1990, Korydallos 1995, Patras 1996, Corfu 1996, uprising in Malandrinos and almost all prisons in the country in 2007, mass hunger strikes in every prison in 2008. Continuous uprisings and unrests throughout time prove that prisons remain “a volcano about to erupt”, despite prisoners’ contradictions, dispersed submission, physical repression, violence, humiliations, and abundance of psychiatric drugs.
In April 2007, prison guards seriously assaulted anarchist Giannis Dimitrakis, detainee at Malandrino’s prison. This event gave rise to a series of events that exceeded Giannis Dimitrakis’ abuse by the guards. Riots broke out in most wards of Malandrino’s prison and prisoners occupied the roof of prison buildings. They sensed the taste of freedom again. Prisoners’ demands reflected the causes of the revolt and they were handed in to the repressive state apparatus that had already taken place around the prison building. The demands referred of course to the atrocious living conditions, humiliations, physical and psychological violence. The unrest spread to almost all prisons in the country with prisoners climbing up to the prisons’ roofs, burning mattresses, destroying cells and security cameras.
A trial took place on Tuesday 11th of February 2014 in Amfissa, Viotia, concerning the revolt in the high-security prison of Malandrino in April 2007. Five detainees at Malandrino in 2007 were accused of participating in the unrest. Among those were anarchist Giannis Dimitrakis and fighter Vaggelis Pallis, who weren’t only accused of physical fomentation, but also of moral instigation regarding material damages.
In other words, Dimitrakis and Pallis were accused of being moral instigators of the revolt in Malandrino’s hellhole.
The mobilization of repression forces was huge and disproportionate of those who attended in solidarity with Giannis Dimitrakis. Dimitrakis was the only accused who was present in Amfissa’s court. Vaggelis Pallis was represented by a proxy defense lawyer. The trial began with a parade of prosecution witnesses, prison staff and the police chief. The police chief was present during negotiations between the authorities and prisoners on the roof of the prison building during the early hours of the revolt and was wounded in the head.
The chair of the court, playing the role of civil action, rigorously asked prison guards about the charges appointed to Giannis Dimitrakis and Vaggelis Pallis, that is those of moral instigation. All of the witnesses claimed that they never heard any of the defendants encouraging others to cause damages. Most of them moved along the lines of “I didn’t see anything and I cannot believe the accusations since I didn’t see it happening”.
The investigation of prosecution witnesses was long and boring. The prison guards reproduced more or less the same, while two of them testified that they saw Vaggelis Pallis trashing a CCTV camera and a window(!). Chair’s fussiness and insistence did not really result to anything but an excessive delay for what was a simple court case.
As defense witnesses testified Nick Giannopoulos, Giorgos Voutsis-Vogiatzis and Giorgos Kalaitzidis. Their argumentation moved along two dimensions: 1. Living conditions in greek prisons and 2. the accusations and notion of moral instigation in general.
The witnesses described in eloquent details the atrocious living conditions in prison hellholes as well as physical and mental violence against prisoners. In conclusion, the uprising in Malandrino and the minor damages that the chair of court made a fuss about, was nothing else but an expected blast of rage and dignity from prisoners.
In his testimony, Giannis Dimitrakis referred to the situation in Malandrino, a prison which at that time was considered the top high-security prison in greece. He referred to the prisoners’ contradictions and the beautiful moment when these contradictions were put aside, although temporarily, and they revolted for their dignity. Giannis Dimitrakis claimed that besides the fact that it is impossible to manipulate prisoners will to revolt, it is something that he, as an anarchist, does not ideologically agree with [manipulation]. Thus, the accusation of moral instigation was something that was obviously dropped during the prison guards’ testimonies.
To the chair’s insistence concerning damages caused in the interior of the prison building, Giannis Dimitrakis stated that he considers the revolt in Malandrino as one of the mildest uprisings taken place in greek prisons. He recalled the uprisings in Alicarnassos, as Petropoulos [1] described it, and in Korydallos, where a prisoner was burned alive. He claimed that the damages cannot be compared to the size and intensity of the violence prisoners are exposed to by the prison apparatus. Concluding his statement, Dimitrakis added that if he really was in charge, he would wish that the revolt would last longer and the prisoners would remain longer on the roofs of the prison’s building.
He denied commenting on the incident regarding the injury of the police chief during the first day of the revolt, for which Makof (originally from Iraq) was accused.
The prosecutor proposed the acquittal of G.Dimitrakis for both charges – physical and moral damage instigation and of L.TH., the 4th accused, whereas Vaggelis Pallis, Giorgos Moustafa and Makof were found guilty for physical instigation regarding material damages. The court rejected defense lawyers’ initially filed objections regarding the fact that prisons do not constitute buildings serving the public good and therefore charges should be amended to “private property damage”.
After long and pointless meetings, the court followed the prosecutor’s suggestions. Giannis Dimitrakis was acquitted from both charges, Vaggelis Pallis was acquitted for moral instigation but he was found guilty for physical instigation and he was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment. The third, Giorgos Moustafa, was found guilty for physical instigation regarding material damages and he was sentenced to 12 months. The fourth, L.TH., was acquitted for physical instigation regarding material damages. Djvar Makof [2] was found guilty and he was sentenced to 35 months imprisonment for physical instigation regarding material damages and unprovoked body injury against the police chief of Malandrino prison.
[1] The excerpt from Giannis Petropoulos’ book about the revolt in Alicarnassos’ prison was recently published by the solidarity fund for imprisoned and persecuted fighters.
[2] We remain uncertain about the accurate rendering of Djvar Makof’s name into English.