Political Prisoner

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.

Political Prisoner Convicted In Trooper Death To Be Released

October 2, 2014 NewsOne Staff, www.newsone.com Educate! Law, Mass Incarceration, police brutality, Political Prisoner, Racism

A man convicted in the shooting death of a New Jersey state trooper in a crime that still provokes strong emotion among law enforcement more than 40 years later was ordered released on parole by a state appeals court Monday. Sundiata Acoli was known as Clark Edward Squire when he was convicted of the 1973 slaying of Trooper Werner Foerster during a stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. Now in his mid-70s, Acoli was denied parole most recently in 2011, but the appellate judges reversed that ruling Monday. The panel found that the parole board ignored evidence favorable to Acoli and gave undue consideration to past events such as a probation violation that occurred decades earlier.

US Citizen Held In Egypt Near Death After 230-Day Hunger Strike

September 24, 2014 Cristina Corbin, www.foxnews.com Organize! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Egypt, Political Prisoner

A U.S. citizen imprisoned in Egypt following the overthrow of Muslim Brotherhood-backed Mohamed Morsi is near death after refusing to eat for 230 days, say human rights activists and his family, who are pleading for his immediate release. Mohamed Soltan, 26, who holds dual citizenship and graduated from The Ohio State University, was arrested in August 2013 during a crackdown against pro-Morsi supporters in Egypt's Rabaa Al Adeweya Square. Soltan was working at the time with a media committee that was reporting violations by security forces against against pro-Morsi supporters since the former Egyptian president's ousting, according to Amnesty International. Soltan was initially moved from prison to prison to conceal his whereabouts. He was later placed in solitary confinement and imprisoned at al-Aqrab maximum security prison as punishment for going on a hunger strike, the human rights group said.

Jeremy Hammond Announced As Second Courage Beneficiary

September 17, 2014 Free Jeremy, www.freejeremy.net Organize! Free Speech, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Surveillance

Jeremy was sentenced to ten years in prison for being the alleged media source for documents from the private US intelligence firm Strategic Forecasting, Inc. (Stratfor), which included revelations that they had been spying on human rights defenders, for example Bhopal activists and members of PETA, at the behest of corporations and governments. WikiLeaks published these documents in partnership with 29 media organisations worldwide as the Global Intelligence Files, which are still being used for news stories around the world. Despite hundreds of pleas, including a letter submitted by WikiLeaks from itself and its media partners – “newspapers, TV networks, and magazines with a combined audience of 500 million” – asking for leniency for Jeremy, the maximum possible sentence was given.

Release Syrian Political Prisoner Razan Zaitouneh

September 12, 2014 Karam Nachar, www.therepublicgs.net Organize! Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Syria

There was a time, not too long ago, when a young woman headed one of the largest networks of Syrian activists working against the Assad regime. She had blue eyes and uncovered blond hair; she spoke English and held a degree in law; and she was a staunch secularist. But Razan Zaitouneh was utterly uninterested in showcasing any of these ‘qualities’, or in becoming an international icon. She believed in the universality of freedom and human rights, but it was only through very local battles that she thought such values could acquire life and meaning. It was in 2005 that I first heard of Razan. She had taken part in a small demonstration in Damascus, and soon thereafter stories circulated of her exceptional bravery. Razan Zaitouneh had raised chants against the Assad family when, for most Syrians, the mere mention of the president or his father was reason enough to shudder with fear. She had spoken the radical truth when older activists and most international observers were content with their vague demands for ‘reform’ or ‘gradual change’ in Syria.

International Day Of Protest To Free Nestora

August 4, 2014 Free Nestora, www.freenestora.org Resist! Mexico, Political Prisoner, Self Defense

August 21, 2014 will be the one year anniversary of Nestora’s arrest and imprisonment. For 12 months, she has been denied the right to see her lawyers. Orders to free her by a federal judge have been ignored. Kept in isolation without medical attention, she represents hundreds of people in self defense groups who have been jailed for defending their communities against powerful, politically connected criminal cartels. In June, the Mexican government expanded its occupation and repression in Michoacán, arresting Dr. José Mireles and nearly 100 of his followers. They were on their way to regain public control of Lázaro Cárdenas port, the largest seaport in Mexico, from a drug cartel known as the Knights Templar. This criminal syndicate used the port to export goods and resources stolen from the people of the region. Today Nestora Salgado and Dr. José Mireles are powerful symbols of popular resistance against Mexican government corruption and unbridled crime. As U.S. military aid to Mexico increases, the violence continues. August 21 will be a day of International protest calling for the release of Nestora, Dr. Mireles, and all political prisoners. Join a location near you in international solidarity!

June 11: Support Marie Mason And All Political Eco-Prisoners

June 2, 2014 Creative Resistance, www.creativeresistance.com Organize! Creative Resistance, Environment, Political Prisoner, Protest

This article is from our associated project, CreativeResistance.org Artist and musician Marie Mason is a loving mother of two and a long-time activist in the environmental and labor movements. In March 2008, she was arrested by federal authorities for charges related to two acts of property destruction that occurred in 1999 and 2000; no one was injured in either of them. One was on an office at Michigan State University where research into genetically modified organism (GMO) crops was being conducted by agribusiness giant Monsanto. The other attack was damage to commercial logging equipment. She accepted a plea bargain and was sentenced on February 5, 2009 to just under 22 years. She is now serving the longest sentence of any “Green Scare” prisoner. The “Green Scare” is the name given to the recent arrests of animal rights and environmental activists who have been charged with acts of economic sabotage. Federal authorities have sought outrageous sentences (often Life in prison) and have publicly and legally labeled the activists as “terrorists” – despite the fact that no one has been killed or injured in any of the acts.

Court Sentences Activist Mahienour El-Masry, Others To Prison

May 21, 2014 Ahram Online, www.english.ahram.org.e Resist! Egypt, Political Prisoner, Protesters Arrested

A court in Alexandria has upheld Tuesday an earlier verdict sending a group of activists to two years in jail and fining them LE50,000 for organising an unauthorised protest during the Khaled Said murder retrial. Mahienour El-Masry, Loai Mohamed Abdel-Rahman, Omar Abdel-Aziz Hussein, Islam Mohamed Ahmed, Nasser Abul-Hamed Ibrahim, Hassan Mostafa, Moussa Hussein, and Hassan El-Siyad were convicted of organising an unauthorised protest, blocking the road, assaulting a police officer and destroying a police vehicle on 2 December. The initial verdict was issued in January, appealed in Feburary, where the court upheld the decision. However, some of the defendants were sentenced in abstentia, and they appealed the verdict for the second time. This is another prosecution of non-Islamist activists under the 2013 controversial protest law. On 22 December 2013, a Cairo criminal court sentenced April 6 Youth Movement founders Ahmed Maher and Mohamed Adel, and independent activist Ahmed Douma to three years in jail and a LE50,000 fine for organising an unauthorised protest and attacking security forces outside the Abdeen court in November.

ACT NOW! Send Letter In Support Of Cecily McMillan

May 17, 2014 Voice Project, www.voiceproject.org Resist! Occupy, police brutality, Political Prisoner, Protesters Arrested

A majority of the jurors who convicted the Occupy Wall Street activist Cecily McMillan of assaulting a New York police officer have asked the judge in her case to not send her to prison. Join them. Cecily McMillan was found guilty of deliberately elbowing officer Grantley Bovell in the face as he led her out of a protest in March 2012. She has maintained that hers was a reaction to having her breast grabbed from behind by the officer. Cecily is well known among her Occupy peers as one of their staunchest advocates of non-violent protest. Convicted of second-degree assault, a felony, Cecily faces up to seven years in prison. She was denied bail and is being detained at Riker’s Island jail. Nine of the twelve jurors who reached the guilty verdict have since taken the unusual step of writing to Judge Ronald Zweibel to request that he not give her a prison sentence. Sentencing is May 19th.

Cecily’s Statement From Rikers, May 9th

May 14, 2014 Cecily McMillan, www.justiceforcecily.com Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Occupy, Political Prisoner

Good morning. I’m writing from the Rose M. Singer Correctional Facility, dorm 2 East B on Rikers Island – where I’ve been held for the past 4 days. Admittedly, I was shocked by the jury’s verdict on Monday, but was not surprised by the events that followed. An overreaching prosecutor plus a biased judge logically adds up to my being remanded to Rikers. I was prepared then, as I am now, to stand by my convictions and face the consequences of my actions – namely that of refusing to forsake my values and what I know to be true in exchange for my “freedom.” Packed into a room with 45 other women – often restricted to my cot – I’ve had nothing but time to measure the strength of my beliefs alongside that ambiguous concept – “freedom.” (I’ve come to the conclusion that it is far easier to weigh such tradeoffs from the comfort of one’s own bed.) At Rikers, the day begins with 4:30am breakfast. Milk cartons in hand, the women echo a common set of concerns – “can’t reach my lawyer, my family won’t speak to me, no commissary” – and I become painfully aware of how privileged I am, despite what is supposed to be the great equalizing suffering of the prison experience.

Persecuted And Imprisoned For Environmental Activism

April 28, 2014 Samantha Sarra, www.truth-out.org Resist! Activism, Environment, Political Prisoner

As the world celebrated Earth Day on April 22, we also marked a half century of environmental resistance and recrimination. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was published in 1962 and is widely regarded as the genesis of the environmental movement. It also marked the beginning of persecution for those trying to protect planet Earth. A naturalist and prolific author who warned against the effects of synthetic pesticides, Carson's work was met with aggressive opposition, and she was labeled a communist with sinister intentions employed by the Soviet Union. The peasant women of the Chipko Movement in India in 1974 helped stop rapid deforestation and reclaim traditional forest rights by surrounding and literally hugging trees to stop them from being felled. Their efforts - which were ultimately successful - came at a cost, as they were abused and threatened with guns by the loggers. Since the beginning, activists have been met with consequences for their environmental conviction, and those consequences increasingly include arrest and imprisonment.

Support For Transform Now Plowshares Resisters

April 2, 2014 TNPlowshares, www.transformnowplowshares.wordpress.com Resist! Nuclear Weapons, Political Prisoner, Protestors Arrested

Megan Rice has moved through Oklahoma City and is, according to the Bureau of Prisons, at Brooklyn, NY in a facility there. The web site for that facility says it is a temporary transit station, but Megan feels she may be there for some time. Information about mailing restrictions can be found at http://www.bop.gov/policy/progstat/5265_014.pdf. In general, all mail must include a full, handwritten return address. Avoid labels; no paperclips or staples. All mail is subject to inspection. Books (hard or soft cover) and magazines must be sent directly from a publisher or bookstore. Any other packages must be pre-approved by the prison or they will be returned.

Vigil For Political Prisoners and Movement Martyrs

March 27, 2014 Anon, www.waveofaction.org Resist! New York (NY), Political Prisoner, Worldwide Wave of Action

Join local peace activists as they join the World Wide Wave of Action with a candle light vigil & silent night march from Foley Square to the NY Veterans Memorial to raise awareness about those killed & imprisoned during the on going non-violent struggle for justice for all. Gather at Foley Square starting at 6:30 PM for sunset kick off of speakers & a know your rights presentation. The evening will end at the New York City Veterans Memorial at 55 Water Street will a candle light vigil & an informal community share on those lost to the system.

UN Special Rapporteur’s Unprecedented Visit To Leonard Peltier

March 27, 2014 Gale Courey Toensing, www.indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com Resist! Indigenous Rights, Political Prisoner, UN

James Anaya, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, made a historic visit to American Indian Movement member Leonard Peltier in prison on Friday – an event expected to boost the growing movement to free the American Indian activist who is believed by Amnesty International and other organizations to be a political prisoner. Peltier, Turtle Mountain Ojibway, is in United States Federal Penitentiary in Coleman, Florida, now serving his 37th year in prison in what is widely believed to be a wrongful conviction.

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