Twenty
days ago anarchist prisoner Nikos Romanos went on hunger strike to
demand his educational furlough. His situation is described as
‘critical’.
Nikos
Romanos’ name is closely tied to the equally well known Alexandros
Grigoropoulos, the 15-year-old boy who was shot and killed by police
officer Epaminondas Korkoneas in Athens, on December 6, 2008. Only 15
years of age himself, Romanos witnessed his best friend die in front of
his eyes. The murder sparked weeks of nationwide rioting.
Several
years later, Romanos was caught together with four of his comrades
while trying to flee from a bank robbery in Velvento. Following their
arrest they were beaten up under police custody to such extent that the
photographs released by the police had to be overtly
photoshopped to hide their injuries.
Nikos
Romanos, Andreas-Dimitris Bourzoukos, Giannis Mihailidis and Dimitris
Politis openly stated that they are anarchists and revolutionaries. They
were subsequently convicted on the charges of armed robbery, while the
initial terrorism charges failed to stand in court. Many refer back to
the speech delivered by the State Attorney Grigoris Peponis during the
trial for the robbery in Velvento: “It is the first time I see a robbery
in which they [the perpetrators] set the hostages free, while during
the police chase, they did not use the heavy weapons they had, neither
did they shoot the policemen, nor did they use the hostage as a human
shield in order to escape.”
Last
spring, while in prison, Nikos Romanos succeeded in passing the Greek
entrance exams for university and was admitted to a faculty in Athens.
Since September 2014, the beginning of the academic term, he has been
eligible for educational furloughs (exit permits) to regularly attend
classes.
The Ministry of Justice and
the President of Greece, Karolos Papoulias, wanted to award Romanos and
other inmates for their academic success. However, Romanos, being an
anarchist, refused to attend the ceremony as this would go against his
principles. The rejection of this invitation from the head of state and
the refusal to accept the €500 prize money resulted in a clearly
vindictive denial, by the prison council, of Romanos’s application for
prison furlough to attend classes.
Many believe this is part of a more generalized vengeful tactic of the state to those resisting the new prison system. The
type-C prisons in
Greece have some similarities with the F-type prisons in Turkey. They
are intended for “dangerous criminals” and the “ideological enemies of
the state,” which includes revolutionary, political and rebellious
prisoners — as well as those who voice their protest against injustices
in jail.
On Monday, November 10,
2014, with anarchy forever in his heart (as he wrote), Nikos Romanos
commenced his hunger strike. He thereby reaffirmed his anarchist
principles and explained his motivation in a statement that laid claim
to his lawful entitlement to educational leave from prison.
In his own words:
In
addition to being instruments of control and repression, laws are also
used for maintenance of balances or what is otherwise called social
contracts; they reflect socio-political correlations and partially form
certain positions for the conduct of the social war.
This
is why I want to make my choice as clear as possible: I am not
defending their legitimacy — on the contrary, I use them as political
blackmail to gain breaths of freedom from the devastating condition of
incarceration.
On
November 24, Romanos was transferred to the Athens General Hospital
Gennimatas, where he remains — under strong police surveillance — to
this day. His transfer was accompanied by an official document of the
prison prosecutor, who audaciously stated that the hospital doctors bear
responsibility for whatever happens to him, thus indirectly urging the
hospital staff to enforce force-feeding.
Nikos
Romanos’s physician, Pantelia (Lina) Vergopoulou, reported on November
28 that he is in critical condition, faced with life-threatening
complications. His doctor warns that “it is no longer his health that is
in danger, but his life,” given that “from one day to the next he may
suffer a kidney or a heart failure.”
According
to Romanos’ lawyer, Fragkiskos Ragkousis, Romanos has lost 17 kilos
(over 35 pounds) and is now fighting for his life. With a heart rate of
170 bpm, Ragousis said that unless there is a change, cardiac arrest is
considered “to be expected.” He also denounced the forced-feeding
ordered by the district attorney director of the prison, stating that
“this is equal to torture of the prisoner.”
During
Romanos’ battle, other prisoners joined him as a sign of support and
comradery. On November 17, anarchist prisoner Yannis Michailidis went on
hunger strike as a sign of solidarity with the struggle of Nikos
Romanos and as of November 28 he in turn also needed to be hospitalized
in Piraeus general hospital Tzaneio, after he was diagnosed with
bradycardia.
On November 30,
Andreas-Dimitris Bourzoukos and Dimitris Politis, anarchist prisoners
and comrades of Romanos, released a statement saying that:
As
a minimum token of solidarity with Nikos, we will also go on a hunger
strike as of Monday December 1 — like comrade Yannis Michailidis, who is
conducting a hunger strike since the 17th of November — until his claim
is met. Together until the end, together until victory.
With
fears that the health of the two initial hunger strikers may be
imminently and irreversibly damaged, many solidarity actions have taken
place both within Greece and in other parts of the world. Nikos’
comrades declared to stand by his side in his struggle and support every
move he desires and must take to accompany his battle, and will support
every expression of aggressive solidarity that is needed. Romanos also
declared that “solidarity means attack” and added an interesting post
scriptum: “To all the armchair ‘fighters’, the professional humanists,
the ‘sensitive’ intellectuals and spiritual personages: I say to you
good riddance in advance.”
Rather
than defend the legitimacy of state laws, Nikos Romanos is using one of
the few means of struggle at his disposal in a state of captivity:
placing his body as a barricade to get a breath of freedom. All comrades
stand firm and continue their hunger strike.
The passion for freedom is stronger than all prisons!
