On the 16th of January 2006, following a robbery of the National Bank of Greece in Solonos street, in Athens, anarchist Yannis Dimitrakis was arrested; under a terror-hysteria climate formed by the media, three of his comrades were picked out and targeted by the persecuting authorities as accomplices of Yannis, but also as members of the imaginary gang of ‘’Robbers in Black’’. They were accused for this very robbery in addition to six other robberies. Not expecting to find any trace of justice within the delirium of terror-lust by the state of media, comrades Simos Seisidis, Marios Seisidis and Grigoris Tsironis, chose the difficult path of clandestinity.
What followed over the next four years did nothing more than confirm that they had made the right choice. Meanwhile, Yannis put on trial and initially convicted to the corrosive sentence of 35 years, despite the collapse of the ‘’Robbers in Black’’ scenario and his acquittal for the rest of the robberies. The media carried out an orgy of misinformation targeting the three fugitives; ‘’photographing’’ them as suspects concerning many severe criminal acts that were taking place occasionally. Arrest warrants were issued in order to put the responsibility on the three comrades for some other unsolved cases; trials that were parodies of justice were carried out unbeknown to them. And as if all this was not enough, a bounty of 600.000euro was put on their heads by the infamous minister of public order M. Chrisohoidis, who eventually succeeded in transforming the streets of Athens into the Wild West; full of heavily armed sheriffs shooting anything that moves…
Unfortunately, on the 3rd of May 2010, Simos fell upon a blockade of such wild sheriffs. In his attempt to run away, he was shot in the back by policeman P. Bokos and even though he was bleeding profusely, he was being beaten relentlessly. We cannot know if cops’ behaviour was because that’s how they act whenever someone runs away or because they recognised Simos from the hundreds of photos hanging on the walls of police stations all over the country. In the first case, they are sick criminals, dangerous for public safety… in the second case they are hit-men that were sent to kill deliberately, following very specific orders from above.
Under the most dreadful conditions imaginable, two months of hospitalization followed; the anti-terrorist forces invaded his room and imposed their presence at both KAT and Evagellismos hospitals. Sadly, the doctors and nursing stuff in the majority of cases followed their orders blindly. As a result of all this, Simos’ right leg was amputated.
On the 30th of March 2011 Simos’ trial for the robbery in Solonos street began, with the only probative evidence the testimonies by two, manipulated by the state, witnesses. On the 5th of May 2011 anarchist Simos was declared innocent by all the judges, but despite the acquitting decision related to all the robberies, Simos was taken back to jail with the twisted accusation of attempted murder of the cop that shot him from behind.
FREEDOM NOW FOR SIMOS SEISIDIS
anarchists in london