On Wednesday, June 13, 2007, in Trento, Italy, a trial was carried out against our friend and companion Juan Sorroche, accused of arson against the Trenitalia train company and "subversive association for the purpose of terrorism".

18,000 pages of surveillance evidence, from video, telephone and ambient sources, meant to support the hypothesis of "association", amounted to absolutely nothing. So the prosecutor Paolo Storari tried to characterize parts of Juan's written correspondence from prison and his previous legal troubles over the grabbing of the Olympic torch and a punch given to a fascist as having "terrorist purposes".

After placing microspies everywhere (in houses, cars, centers, public places and even in a companion's bag) and installing tens of surveillance cameras (in front of houses and centers, in telephone booths and near numerous cell phone repeater towers) at a cost of around a million Euros, our public mercenary of repression has found himself empty-handed. Nonetheless, he has asked for a sentence of 4 years and 4 months in prison. The sentence will be announced on July 6.

The Prosecutor of Trento made the trial into a closed door proceeding, impeding the access of Juan's companions.

After a blocking of traffic put into practice by some 30 anarchists and other people in solidarity, the doors were opened, allowing some companions inside to greet Juan.

During the intervention, the searches and investigations in Bologna were also spoken of. In light of the media lynching on a national level against some basic banalities always maintained by revolutionaries, it seemed appropriate to hang a banner reading: "The Terrorist is the State".

The appointment for sentencing is July 6 at 9:00.

Anarchists of Rovereto and Trento

(Loosely translated from Italian)

Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoner Juan Sorroche

A gathering in front of the Italian consulate in Barcelona was held on January 24th, 2007, in solidarity with anarchist prisoner Juan Antonio Sorroche Fernandez, who was arrested on December 21st, 2006, in Girona by the Guardia Civil (Spanish military police) in cooperation with the Italian Carabinieri (Italian paramilitary police). Juan was searched and detained as part of an investigation based on article 270bis, "subversive association for the purpose of terrorism", under the Italian legal code. Juan was imprisoned in the anti-terror prison regime of Soto del Real Apdo, Madrid. Now he has been extradited back to Italy. It seems that the Italian state is taking the example from the Spanish state and has began to apply the systematic dispersion of all dissident prisoners. Therefore Juan has been sent to a jail that is to 7 hours from the place where he has roots (Rovereto). Juan's criminal charge is related to various acts of sabotage in Rovereto, Italy, where he had been living. These include attacks on banks, police vehicles, cell-phone relay equipment and the burning of three train-units of the Trenitalia railway company, an attack for which an anonymous claim of responsibility was made because of the company's involvement in the deportation of immigrants.

Juan had just spent several months in prison in Italy for resisting a police identification check in Rovereto in June of 2006. He and three of his anarchist companions resisted the cops attempt to drag them to a police station. Police reinforcements were called in and the police officers hit an anarchist in the face with a flash light and let loose with punches and kicks. The anarchists reacted, six cops sought first aid and one cop car was damaged. Juan was sentenced to nine months in prison for this incident. In a statement from prison, he and his companion Mike described their resistance as an act of solidarity with immigrants who also face identification checks, but under a more serious threat of deportation or death during escape attempts. At the end of September, a judge suspended Juan's sentence, with the condition that Juan remain in a different town and not leave, though his home was Rovereto. He left anyway and was arrested in Spain. Juan was also one of the four Rovereto anarchists arrested after the snatching of the Olympic flame in January of 2006, an action which one of the arrested anarchists, Massimo, claimed in court as being related to the exploitation of immigrant workers on the Olympic-related construction project of the TAV high-speed railway.

Juan's address in prison:

Juan Antonio Sorroche Fernandez
Casa Circondariale Ctr.
Castrogno 64100
Teramo
Italy

Statement from Mike and Juan in the Rovereto Prison (June 2006)

We transgressed your laws not by chance but by making a choice that reflects our very conscience and heart. When refusing to show our documents we reconfirm our refusal of authority and express solidarity to all the people who, unlike us, don't have the possibility to choose but are compelled to run away in order to escape imprisonment.

We want to remember:

- Patrick, who was compelled to falsify his documents to be able to stay close to his mother.

- Ali, who was recently deported from Italy after being blackmailed and obliged to choose between leaving Italy and being locked up in prison.

- We want to remember the boy who threw himself into the frozen water of the Adige in January, while escaping the Carabinieri from Trento, and whose destiny is still unknown.

- We want to remember those who died falling from a balcony or a train to escape police examination, as happened in Genoa and Turin.

- We want to remember those who are locked up, starved and tortured in the Italian detention camps and all over the world.

- We want to remember those who are judged in these courts because they don't have a piece of paper that is not worth a life.

- We want to remember the unnamed people who were killed by racism and indifference in this society.

As we are convinced that refusing to show identity documents on a large scale implies active solidarity towards those who don't have papers or have received deportation and expulsion orders, we remain 'not susceptible to repentance', towards your accusations, sentences and jails.

- Mike and Juan from the Rovereto prison, June 30, 2006.

Note:

Juan was also one of the four Rovereto anarchists arrested after the snatching of the Olympic flame in January of 2006, an action which one of the arrested anarchists, Massimo, claimed in court as being related to the exploitation of immigrant workers on the Olympic-related construction project of the TAV high-speed railway. More information on that can be found here:

Direct Action Against the Olympics and the High-Speed Railway in Italy

Insurrectionary Anarchists of the Coast Salish Territories