Letter from Amfissa prison

In the night of January 13^th 2009, an incendiary device, composed of gas canisters and gasoline, exploded in the entrance of the commissariat of Evomos (region of Thessalonica), and damaged the windows in the facade and the ventilation system. Shortly after, the police arrested the 26 year old anarchist Ilias Nikolau, who does not live far from there. Ilias was, together with Dimitra Sirianou and Kostakis Halazas, subject of an arrest warrant for over a year, concerning the same case as Vaggelis Botzatzis (on the accusation of several arsons). Vaggelis was released on conditions on October 13^th 2008.

On November 14^th, during the agitations with the hunger strike in Greek prisons, the 3 others went to the commissariat of Thessalonica, accompanied by some hundred comrades. The day after, the judge decided to let them await their trial in freedom. Currently Ilias is accused for “explosion” (felon), “production” and “accomplishment” (misdemeanours). Ilias does not acknowledge the accusations, nor admits “having been caught red handed”. The police raided his parent’s house, the place where he works, and stormed the house of his grandmother out of the city. Ilias was brought to the prison of Amfissa, this is a letter he wrote:

In the morning of January 13^th I was arrested in the west of Thessalonica, on the accusation of an explosion that took place at the commissariat of the municipal police. This happened a year after, an incredible accusation was created against me and three of my comrades in November 2007. That accusation put one of us in prison, and made three others escape. The witch hunt has started. We have lived through a considerably warm December and a situation that shows the lack of social peace clearly. Social peace only lives in the imagination of those that cannot understand that reality is characterized by a permanent civil war. With a revolutionary side that rebels against this democratic monstrosity. Rage replaced fear and instead of approval, negation appeared. The month of December, as a sign for times to come, made a very clear devision between those that feed the Power, maintain and defend it, and those that fight it. Now is not the time to look back in nostalgia to the ashes that the insurrection left on its path. We have to understand and express the signs of the present and the future. The signs that already exist, and those to come. The signs of a relentless social war. If we want that moments of negation, revolt and dignity are lived, we have to arm our hands and our desires, determined and organized. I resist against those who think that manifestations and pacifist protest will make a difference, because they’re already dead. They drag their corpses along the streets, in the unions and in the luxurious offices of their bosses. I take place on the side of those who are led by dignity and I join with those who feel the unchangeable will to disrupt and to destroy this enormous cemetery. The prison is an added step to a rebel. A step towards imprisonment. To all those who think that they have overcome me, that they have overcome us... For me and my comrades it works just the other way around! Because as long as there are prisoners of war, we will continue to struggle.

I send warm and rebellious greetings to my comrades and to revolutionaries everywhere. Freedom for all prisoners of the revolt. Freedom for Yiannis Dimitrakis, Polis Georgiadis and Yiorgous Voutsi-Vogiatzis and all the hostages of democracy.

Ilias Nikolau, Amfissa prison, 19^th January 2009