Request: UPIII presently requesting material on botany, organic gardening and permaculture.

This is 3 months now that our comrade UPIII has been locked up and only now after 3 months did 6 of her letters arrive together after being withheld altogether for over 2 months. (the letters will be published daily for next 6 months) Her mail however continues to be severely delayed and intentionally disrupted by upon reception at prison (1 week) being forwarded to a judge in Kerpen for another week for approval, then sent to persecution in Aachen (taking another week) also for approval and only then send back to the prison, where, yes, it undergoes last final approval taking additional couple of days, with additionally translation taking at least a week at the beginning of this convoluted journey/isolation tactic. Turning a written contact and response period to over 2 months. This has an extreme effect of psychological isolation and detriment as in German jails there is no access to phones on the “inside”, except for occasionally being able to call a lawyer to request a visit.
Details of the case and even defense are forbidden from being discussed in supervised and monitored visits or in correspondence making proving ones innocence and/or preparing for trial especially difficult. This is also hard psychologically for Hambi prisoners as most other surrounding prisoners are not subjected to this draconian “mail control” get their mail from the outside in matter of days. If that was not enough with so many hands that the UPIII letters and literature pass through more and more often zines and pamphlets especially dealing with prison issues and struggles and other political issues have been disappeared as if prisoners being aware of prison issues was the biggest risk to the institution (a compliment in itself). No receipts are given, and this literature is not given to prisoners upon their release so in effect it is stolen and destroyed.  Censorship come rather easy to those in power, especially power based on violence and injustice.

UPIII has not only been subjected and affected by this for 3 months now but after feeling upbeat and being in good spirits for most of that time now has begun to feel down and depressed recently. It would be hard not to, especially witnessing her imprisoned comrades become deeply depressed and even feeling suicidal with the prison staff responding to those situations by throwing them into the “hole”: a bunker like punishment cell, as opposed to the previous response to this same situation being putting those same prisoners suffering from the effects of their isolation and frequent injustice in medical solitary cells and just annoying them by waking them up at night every 15 minutes to see if they are alive. Now even before the attempted passage of new more repressive police laws anybody that does not respond with ear to ear smile after months of detention awaiting a court-case and chance to speak in their defense can expect to be stripped of their already very limited comfort possessions like writing implements, paper, maybe a book or magazine and everything else that was sent to them like postcards, letters and photos and thrown into a cell previously used for rioting, fighting and scandalously vandalizing inmates. So if at that point they did not really feel like killing themselves perhaps they will afterwards. Underlining that imprisonment, repression and injustice especially when combined while being isolated from outside can affect many prisoners for years to come. It can also be an eye opener on how repressive the present climate disrupting RWE supporting regime of North Rhine Westphalia is while it is striving to become even more so with the passage of the new anti-protest and anti direct action laws. Hambi prisoner’s legal help which has the tendency to be either best in the world or of being dismal apologists for the regime often reminds prisoners that many of the realities of both the prison and justice system are still hold overs from the Fascist Regime. German court systems are also the only courts in Europe (with only perhaps a distant parallel of Czech courts that use “Erection Tests” to check homosexuality of refugees who claimed to have their lives at risk for their sexual orientation in their homelands) which are using age test that do not comprise equally pseudo scientific, bone development x-rays used in other european countries, but instead photograph the pubic areas of young refugees or activists for court records to determine if the prisoner or refugee is of a “legal” age. Not only is this method continue to be used on Anonymous ecological activists but even like other less intrusive and less sexually and psychologically abusive methods it is also completely pseudo-scientific and not conclusive with rates of miss “diagnosis” being as high as 40-50%. The German “Age Test” can be therefore seen for what it trully is just another tool of sexualized psychological repression.

During the last week what is now weekly visit by supporters and friends of UPIII, photos were brought from prison solidarity actions. They were prevented from being given to UPIII by maintaining that with their slogans they were in effect “letters”. Now at the following visits the same photos were brought back with digitally removed slogans being replaced by flowers. The jail staff still refused to allow the photos to be given at visit(photos and inspected clothing are one of the “allowed” to bring at visits items). In a way the cops were right the photos were a “letter”, a “letter” conveying solidarity and support, a message of not being alone, speaking volumes.  However those photos were only letters in a symbolic and metaphorical sense which is just the opposite of the principles on which law claims to operate. This is however how repression operates: Prisoner is constantly brought down if not yet physically than psychological and when depression sets in punished additionally in a vicious circle, affecting many for years and institutionalizing many more. For as long as this continues write letters(the actual and symbolic ones) to UPIII and others. Keep record of when you sent the letter, make sure that you put the date on letters and postcards as well, as the postmark is not often readable and write in mail and keep a copy of what the content of the correspondence is.

UPIII was promised a pre-trial court appearance and trial with a release by her lawyer who unfortunately is a court assigned defense as our other legal defense was overwhelmed by their other cases when UPIII was arrested. Needless to say it appears as if there will be no court case till at least next month. The repression and imprisonment that UPIII, others now and in the future are going through s not going to stop by itself. As ecosystems, communities and Climate collapse only heightened level of repression becomes the standard response from those in power. Do or Die! Becomes even more of a call and achieves even more depth as this time it is not just us but the whole planet that is attacked and decimated. The Planet and its ecosystems under attack for which protection UPIII is being unjustly imprisoned and for which she has been receiving such treatment. The same Planet and ecosystems as those attacking and repressing us are destroying and putting in unparalleled danger for countless species, organisms and future generations. For that to continue the opposition has to be, once again, locked up and eliminated by the contorted logic of arrogance, egoism and repression(AKA Capitalism).

No Cops on a Dead Planet!

#FreeUPIII!