Ενεργήστε τώρα
Συμπέρασμα
Συγγνώμη, αλλά αυτό το τμήμα δεν είναι προς το παρόν διαθέσιμο στα Ελληνικά. Ακολουθεί το άρθρο στα Αγγλικά.
The release of the charge sheets by the four activists has confirmed the worst fears. Through massive surveillance, the Austrian police were clearly unable to find anything other than a few expressions of opinions, showing that the activists probably have some sympathies for destroying property of enterprises which they consider unethical. Despite this, the long-term police observations were unable to prove that they had committed any such offence.
But the Austrian state has no scruples. To overcome the complete lack of evidence, the prosecution has exploited the vague formulation of Section 278a and de facto adopted the Orwellian concept of thought-crime. The activists' "criminal thinking" is used as evidence of their alleged affiliation with a criminal organisation and this alleged affiliation as evidence that their legal animal protection activities are in fact criminal. Mocking Austria's own constitution, even organising demonstrations is explicitly presented as one of such criminal acts.
With this justification, the activists were one morning woken up by masked police men with firearms pointed at their heads. Martin Balluch and Christian Moser were locked up in cells for three months, one being isolated from his wife and small children, the other spending more than a month on hunger strike. The supreme court later ruled that everything had been carried out correctly. Having already managed to ruin the activists financially and psychologically, the Austrian state now wants to put them back in prison for up to 5 years.
By releasing the charge sheets, the four activists have proven beyond doubt that they are being persecuted for their opinions and political activities. This is in itself a human rights scandal, regardless of whether there is any justification to prosecute the remaining 9 activists. But since these are charged under the same Section 278a, it is to be assumed that the evidence against them is based on similar grounds. When 13 political activists are kept under direct threat of a financial ruin and up to 5 years imprisonment, it is hard not to suspect that this is an attempt to clamp down on the whole social movement, which has simply become too inconvenient.
Please add your voice to the protest against this flagrant violation of human rights in Austria.