On December 1st 2001 a big demonstration against a new university law took place in Madrid, in which Manuel, Israel and Marcos were arrested at Santo Domingo square, after an argument with a photographer, who turned out to be an undercover police. The argument took place half an hour before the facts for which later they will be prosecuted (so it means they were already arrested when things happened). At the same time Daniel and Justo were arrested in Callao square after a cop was injured by a brick thrown by a demonstrator. Dani was accused of throwing the brick to the same cop that was trying to arrest him, which is just not possible. Various evidences that exonerated him were refused by the judge, such as photos made by a 'El Mundo'( capitalist mass-media newspaper) photographer and the testimony from a person who had nothing to do with the demonstration. For us all this has a unique name: police frame-up.
All the arrested suffered from physical and psychological torture in 'Leganitos' and 'Moratalaz' police stations and have spent 72 hours in locked in their cells, were accused of public disorders, causing injuries and attacks to the police; on October 27th 2005, the judge Lourdes Casado passed the sentence:
3 years and 6 months of prison for Daniel and Manuel after being found guilty of public disorders, causing injuries to, and attacking a police man, 1,5 year of prison for Israel after being found guilty of public disorders and attacks, 6 months for Marcos after being found guilty of attacks. Justo, another arrested one, was under eighteen at that time and there for not prosecuted.
They decided to appeal the sentence in a higher court but after waiting almost a year, this court decided to maintain the sentence from the first trial, which means that Daniel and Manuel have to go to prison in the next months.
We, relatives, friends and comrades have followed the whole process and we tried to show the manipulations and lies from the police. Now we fall into desperation and helplessness which makes us full of rage.
But we will change rage into action, uncovering and spiting out their lies into their face.
We ask to all of you and your collectives to be aware about this case and be ready to show solidarity with them in the next months; we are just thinking about organizing an international day of actions and support but nothing is clear yet so we ask you to wait for some concrete date in order to make things a bit coordinated.
Manuel, Daniel, Israel and Marcos are supportive persons, involved in different struggles in their towns and neighbourhoods, and now they need our support as well.
In the next three months Daniel and Manuel must go to prison and we need to stop it. So please spread this information on your political websites, collectives, trade unions, solidarity groups and individuals. If you want to read more about this case you can have a look in the next addresses:
http://www.nodo50.org/fadal2001/
http://faro. org.es/
Posted 14/6/2007