Political Prisoner

Mumia Hospitalized In Diabetic Shock, Family Denied Access

April 2, 2015 San Francisco Bay View, www.sfbayview.com Educate! Mass Incarceration, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Political Prisoner, Racial Justice

From Mumia’s attorney Bret Grote of the Abolitionist Law Center: “Yesterday morning, March 30, Mumia Abu-Jamal was rushed to the hospital after passing out at State Correctional Institution (SCI) Mahanoy. He was admitted to the Schuylkill Medical Center with a blood sugar level of 779. Today, he received visits from his wife, Wadiya, and his brother, Keith Cook. Mumia’s blood sugar had dropped to 333 as of a couple hours ago. This is still elevated and at an unhealthy level. “Mumia does not have a history of diabetes but had been experiencing a series of symptoms that should have alerted medical staff at the prison to the onset of the disease. Instead, he was not given comprehensive diagnostic treatment and a medical crisis emerged that could have resulted in his slipping into a diabetic coma or worse. . .

Mumia Abu-Jamal Hospitalized, Court Hears Mental Anguish Law

March 31, 2015 TeleSur, www.telesurtv.net Resist! Mass Incarceration, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Political Prisoner

The law was enacted in response to a broadcast Abu-Jamal made last year. The family of Daniel Faulkner, who was killed in 1983, claim that it distressed them. A federal judge heard an appeal Monday to a law allowing victims of crimes to file injunctions against perpetrators who afflict “mental anguish.” Meanwhile Mumia Abu-Jamal, the prisoner and activist who inspired the legislation, is held in hospital incomunicado. Little is known about the condition of the black revolutionary, who is serving life for the killing of a Philadelphia police officer, other than that he is being held in intensive care, and his family is unable to contact him.

Environmental Activist Released 10 Years Early Based On FBI Documents

March 11, 2015 Chris Steele, www.truth-out.org.com Resist! CIA, Criminal Justice, Environment, Law, Political Prisoner

After serving nine years in prison, Eric McDavid was freed on January 8, 2015, when it was revealed - through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)-released court documents pored over by his supporters - that the government withheld documents from him that supported his defense claim that he was entrapped by the FBI. McDavid, who identifies as an anarchist and an environmental activist, was charged with "conspiracy to use fire or explosives to damage corporate and government property" in May 2008 and sentenced to 19 years and 7 months in prison. McDavid is a victim of a long history and concerted effort by federal and state entities in the United States to target anarchists and other radicals. An early example of surveillance and harassment against birth control advocates, anarchists and radicals being targeted by the US government dates back to the Comstock Act.

Law Silencing Prisoners Violates Freedom Of Speech

February 5, 2015 Carey Shenkman, www.philly.com Educate! Freedom of Speech, Philadelphia, Political Prisoner

Any state legislature would have a hard time dreaming up a more unconstitutional measure than the one outgoing Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett recently signed into law. The so-called Revictimization Relief Act allows victims of personal-injury crimes to sue convicts to silence any speech that allegedly "perpetuates the continuing effect of the crime" or causes "mental anguish." This vaguely defined gag order is a textbook violation of the First Amendment. Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted of killing Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner, and is now, from prison, a prolific journalist and author. The legislature passed the "Muzzle Mumia Law" to censor academic and political speech.

Protests For Basque Political Prisoners

February 3, 2015 Xabier Letona, www.argia.eus Resist! Basque, Independence, Political Prisoner, Spain

The City of Bilbao was becoming crowded by people arriving from all over the Basque Country as the day went on. By noon it was impossible to walk around the city centre. The main streets surrounding the meeting points from which the demonstration was going to start at 17:00 hours were getting packed as this time got closer. “Sare” (meaning literally “Network” in Basque, a citizen network struggling for the rights of Basque political prisoners) was in the way of achieving the objective of the day. This article is a chronicle of that demonstration. 25 years ago the Spanish and French governments applied the policy of dispersal against the Basque political prisoners. Since then and according to the information given by “Sare” the family members and friends that visit the these prisoners travel 352.329 km every week, as much as turning around the earth 8.8 times weekly.

I Am A 20th Century Escaped Slave

January 2, 2015 Assata Shakur, www.counterpunch.org Educate! Cuba, Political Prisoner, Racial Justice, usa

y name is Assata Shakur, and I am a 20th century escaped slave. Because of government persecution, I was left with no other choice than to flee from the political repression, racism and violence that dominate the US government’s policy towards people of color. I am an ex-political prisoner, and I have been living in exile in Cuba since 1984. I have been a political activist most of my life, and although the U.S. government has done everything in its power to criminalize me, I am not a criminal, nor have I ever been one. In the 1960s, I participated in various struggles: the black liberation movement, the student rights movement, and the movement to end the war in Vietnam.

Imprisoned Former CIA Agent John Kiriakou Speaks About Torture & Prison

December 21, 2014 Natalia Megas, www.washingtonian.com Educate! CIA, Criminal Justice and Prisons, John Kiriakou, Political Prisoner, Torute

A jailhouse interview with the man whose disclosures prompted this week’s damning torture report. In 2007, 15-year CIA veteran John Kiriakou told an ABC News reporter that his agency had waterboarded an Al Qaeda detainee, Abu Zubaydah, whom Kiriakou was involved in capturing in 2002. His revelation confirmed to the American public the CIA’s torture program and helped spur a years-long Senate investigation and a damning, 6,000-page report, the abstract of which was released this week. Kiriakou pleaded guilty in 2012 to disclosing classified information, including the name of a fellow CIA operative, to a New York Times reporter. In early 2013, he reported to the a federal prison in Loretto, Pennsylvania, to begin serving a 30-month sentence. Kiriakou, along with supporters that include his congressman, Virginia Democrat Jim Moran, says the real point of his prosecution was to silence him and others from talking about torture. (Kiriakou case is the subject of the documentary Silenced, which screened last summer at AFI Docs.)

Secrecy In Barrett Brown Case Continues

December 15, 2014 Free Barrett, www.tumblr.freebarrettbrown.org Educate! Journalism, Political Prisoner

Ahead of the sentencing of Barrett Brown, which is due to happen next Tuesday, December 16th, the DOJ is opposing the public’s right to know about a case with extraordinary implications for the public and for the practice of journalists. On November 19th, Brown’s defense attorneys filed their final sentencing memorandum, which is a thorough legal argument in favor of time served for the defendant, including many letters submitted by friends, family and supporters on his behalf. Because the government’s pleadings arguing for a 8 ½ year sentence were made under seal, the defense’s filing in response was also sealed, like much of the case. Arbitrary and inexplicable secrecy, including protective orders and gag orders have abounded in USA v. Barrett Lancaster Brown from the very start.

Tides Of Relief: Nikos Romanos Wins Victory In Hunger Strike

December 12, 2014 Foula Farmakidis, Spyros Marchetos and Christina Laskaridis, www.roarmag.org Resist! Education, Greece, Hunger Strike, Political Prisoner

Tides of relief emanated from Greece on Wednesday, when the anarchist prisoner Nikos Romanos ended his month-long hunger strike that sparked solidarity actions across the globe. His demands were essentially met, with the parliament decreeing that student prisoners will be allowed educational leave on certain conditions, including electronic security tagging. Romanos’ desperate struggle against an intransigent government brought up international memories of Bobby Sands and the other Irish republican prisoners who died in 1981. Now his victory, suggesting that the extreme right-wing Samaras government may be on its last throes, shows what a huge influence a person can have when they are unafraid to risk their own life and when they are backed by a resourceful solidarity movement.

What It’s Like To Go To Jail For Your Cause

December 3, 2014 We Are Seneca Lake, www.wearesenecalake.com Strategize! Political Prisoner

As a personal experience, enduring what Martin Luther King, Jr. called, “the ordeals of jail” deepens one’s commitment to our campaign, fosters patience and bravery, and reveals a side of American life—the world of incarceration—that is otherwise hidden from view. Most of all: there is great satisfaction in aligning one’s actions with one’s values. Those of us who have chosen jail sentences—by refusing to pay the county a fine for the privilege of arresting us—have discovered joy behind our bars and a sense of being at peace with oneself. And, finally, because jail is one of the few places in the world without to-do lists, email, text messages, Internet access—or even clocks—the incarcerated civil disobedient is given a gift of time: time to read, write, sketch, meditate, reflect, and otherwise draw on one’s own inner resources.

11 Protesters Released After International Outcry

December 1, 2014 Tracy Wilkinson, www.latimes.com Educate! Mexico, Political Prisoner, Student Activism

Eleven people arrested in recent anti-government demonstrations and sent to maximum-security prisons have been released without charges after their detention created an international uproar. A 12th person arrested separately in connection with the same case was also freed, and publicly denounced what he described as beatings and threats by state security services. Mostly peaceful marches against the government of President Enrique Pena Nieto have become a mainstay since the Sept. 26 kidnapping and likely massacre of 43 college students in Iguala in the state of Guerrero. The students were attacked by local police working with a drug cartel in cahoots with the mayor of Iguala and his wife, the government says.

Today: Protest For Political Prisoner Rasmea Odeh

November 14, 2014 USPCN.org and StopFBI.net, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Political Prisoner, Torture

Today a broad coalition of New Yorkers and human rights groups will attend a protest in support of Palestinian solidarity activist and United States political prisoner Rasmea Odeh. The demonstration, organized by Students For Justice in Palestine chapters throughout New York City, will take place today, outside of the United States Federal Court at 26 Federal Plaza, New York, NY, at 3:30pm. On Monday November 10th, 67-year-old Chicago-based activist Rasmea Odeh was unjustly found guilty on one count of Unlawful Procurement of Naturalization for allegedly failing to mention a 1969 conviction by the State of Israel, based on a confession obtained through brutal, sustained torture. Her conviction occurred in a military court that has a greater than 99% conviction rate for Palestinians.

Rev. Pinkney Convicted, Threatened With Life In Prison

November 6, 2014 Glen Ford, www.blackagendareport.com Educate! Mass Incarceration, Political Prisoner, Racial Justice

Rev. Edward Pinkney, the 66-year-old community activist who has battled for decades on behalf of the mostly Black population of Benton Harbor, Michigan, was this week convicted on five counts of forging the dates of some signatures on a petition to recall the town’s mayor. The Berrien County jury was all-white. So was the judge and the prosecutor. Each of the felony counts carries a maximum five year sentence, but prosecutor Mike Sepic is calling for a life prison term on the grounds that Rev. Pinkney “has at least three prior felony convictions” – all of them stemming from his nonviolent resistance to white supremacy and the rule of the rich. Rev. Pinkney’s nemesis – the rich entity that rules in Berrien County – is Whirlpool, the giant corporation that once employed lots of Black people in low-wage positions at its Benton Harbor headquarters, but now wants them gone, so that the land on which the town sits on the shores of Lake Michigan can be put to more luxurious and profitable uses.

Political Prisoners In The Sacrifice Zone Of Empire

October 28, 2014 Nozomi Hayase, www.counterpunch.org Educate! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights, Mass Incarceration, Political Prisoner, Solitary Confinement

Abu-Jamal and Hammond, two men with very different backgrounds share much in common. Both were placed in prolonged solitary confinement, which the UN Special Rapporteur on torture called “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and may amount to torture.” Since his arrest in March 2010, Hammond was regularly cut off from contact with his friends and family and was more than once in solitary. Abu-Jamal has spent the last 30 years in prison, almost all of it in solitary confinement on Pennsylvania’s death row before prosecutors agreed in 2011 to reduce the sentence. They both have always held strong commitment to social justice. Hammond revealed secret collusion of corporations and the state to engage in unconstitutional spying on human rights activists.

Breaking: PA Moves To Silence Prisoners, Act Now!

October 14, 2014 Noelle Hanrahan, www.prisonradio.org Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Political Prisoner

Pennsylvania legislators are trying to stop prisoners from speaking about their ideas and experiences. Last week, PA Representative Mike Vereb introduced a bill (HB2533) & SB508 called the “Revictimization Relief Act,” which would allow victims, District Attorneys, and the Attorney General to sue people who have been convicted of “personal injury” crimes for speaking out publicly if it causes the victim of the crime “mental anguish.” The bill was written in response to political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal’s commencement speech at Goddard College, and is a clear attempt to silence Mumia and other prisoners and formerly incarcerated people. We believe that this legislation is not actually an attempt to help victims, but a cynical move by legislators to stop people in prison from speaking out against an unjust system.

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