Police repression against austrian AR-activists

[bronco]

link to article on vgt website

 

Austria. Indefensible Attack against Animal Welfare Movement

Twenty-four House and Office Raids, Ten Arrests, No Concrete Charges, and a String of Human Rights Violations result in Seven People on Hungerstrike

 

The morning of 21st May saw the first massive raid from police against the animal welfare movement through out the whole of Austria.

 

A total of twenty-four homes and offices of animal welfare activists and organisations were raided by police at 6.15 a.m., Harald Balluch, managing director of the VGT (Association against Animal Factories) described the scene in his flat. "I awoke to the sound of the door being broken in, immediately a group of armed and masked people surrounded my bed where my girlfriend and I were sleeping and aimed their weapons at us. They screamed at me that they would shoot me if I moved. We have two elderly rescued dogs, who were brutally manhandled. As you can imagine, all four of us were absolutely terrified."

 

Seven organisations have been affected and ten people were taken into custody. Police have justified this action by saying that the campaigners are suspected of belonging to a criminal organisation §278a of the Austrian criminal code. However, after a week of keeping these people in custody no charges have been made against them.

Improvements for animals achieved by the Austrian movement have set a world wide example

 

The animal welfare movement in Austria has achieved a great deal for animals in the last years. The success list includes a ban on fur farms, a ban on wild animals in circuses, a ban on caged rabbits used for meat and a ban on battery cages for chickens. Austria is regarded world wide as one of, if not the most impressive country in terms of animal welfare.These successes are entirely down to researching the conditions that animals are kept in, giving the public access to this information and political lobbying. Harald Balluch distances himself and the VGT from any illegal activities.â€

[xjohanx]

i wanna punch someone

[bronco]

i wanna punch someone

Attach the punch to an email to one of the adress above .

 

Updated info can also be found here, including information about solidarity demos (according to the site demos are at the moment planned at different places in austria, as well as in Bern, Zürich, Leipzig and Helsinki), how to get in contact with the imprisoned activists and other ways to help. Unfortunately site is only available in german it seems. Information on how to send letters to the imprisoned is however available in english .

[nobbi]

Thanks for posting this.

 

On their site there is a movie http://www.aerzte-gegen-tierversuche.tierrechte.de/mpeg/todlabor.mpg (only in German)

 

I will translate some text of it, because something what Dr. Ray Greek says in the movie is getting really to the point:

 

Narrator: "What is more important for you? A rat or your mother? But actually it's not about this question. It is pure utopia to believe that you could choose between your own mother, father, sister and a anonimous rat."

 

Dr. Ray Greek: "The on animal experiments based science is trying for years to make us believe that we have to choose between a rat and a beloved person, which of course is nonsense. We only have to choose between good science and bad science. And animal experiments are just bad science."

 

Amen!

[bronco]

4th of june is global solidarity action day for the imprisoned activists. I would ask people to do what they can, sending an email for instance doesnt take much effort.

 

4th of june: Global solidarity action day!

 

The wave of repression which took place last week in Austria was a shock

for everybody. Anger, fear and consternation is what most of us might

feel.

The arbitrary behaviour of the austrian police, the criminalization of

people dedicated to animal liberation and the imprisonment of them screams

out for

action! We must show the responsible people and those connected with them

our solidary resistance. What happened in Austria is not only a problem of

austrian people and also not only of animal liberation activists! It is an

alarming strike against inconvenient opponents, which last week affected

austrian animal rights activists and could affect any left person in any

country soon!

 

Our response has to be a global solidarity throughout the left! That is

why we call out for a global day of action on june 4th, dedicated to the

austrian

prisoners. Do anything to show your support and solidarity. Send e-mails

to austrian embassies, phone the embassies and tell them how you feel

about the

repression wave in austria, do demos in front of the embassies, organize

events to collect money for the legal support of the activists... support

the anti

fur campaign against "Kleider Bauer", which seems to be the main reason

for the disproportional state repression and which must carry on!

 

Please use your energy and creativity on the 4th of june to show your

solidarity with the austrian animal liberation prisoners!

 

We can give you the following information:

 

- a sample letter which you can e-mail (in german and english)

- a homepage of austrian embassies and consulats

- a list of e-mail addresses

- a list of phone and fax numbers

 

More info and sample letters in german and english can be found here

[MartinVegartin]

I saw this elsewhere:

 

 

Austrian TEN STILL on remand without any charges.

 

Criminal Charges made against Austrian State Officials by Peter Pilz of the Austrian Green Party:

 

Vienna , 24. July 2008

 

In the scandal surrounding ten Austrian animal rights advocates detained in remand prison, Austrian Green Party security spokesman and leader of the parliament select committee on internal affairs, pressed today for criminal charges against two police investigators, a state prosecutor and two remand judges, who all stand now accused of abuse of authority, defamation and libel, illegal arrest and damage of property.

 

'This time crime emerged from the other side of the bar!', stated Dr. Peter Pilz, who has been one the first Austrian politicians criticising the flawed accusations under the criminal code paragraph 278a against the animal advocates, and he stated that the requirements to apply this paragraph were not given in that case.

 

During the observations of the detainees prior to their arrest multiple violations of the existing laws were committed by the state investigators, such as the illegal installation of hidden positioning devices on cars, and concerning several of the permissions granted by the judges. Evidence supporting police suspicion, as required by law, was either not substantiated or not even provided by the public prosecution.

 

One police investigator subjected an animal protectionist officially to suspicion of a severe crime and to secret observation intrusions just because it was said that the person had expressed disapproving comments and forwarded a similar text of an official press statement by the Alternative Youth group of the Green Party. The police officer thereby seriously infringed this person’s basic and constitutional right to free speech and the freedom to not be persecuted for criminal charges without reason, as set out in the law stated Pilz.

 

While it is an extraordinary step to press charges against remand judges or a state prosecutor, the parliamentarian justified his intervention with the abhorrent negligence apparent in this case, which demands the prosecution of these state officials. In addition Dr. Pilz insisted that non-governmental organisations as well as civil society must be protected from such police officers and judges colluding in an affair which bears the political stamp of the ÖVP (Austrian Conservative Party).

 

Update on Martin:

 

Martin started to eat again just before the last remand hearing.

 

Martin has lost around 20 kgs. He is eating muesli with water, fruit, bread and potatoes, when they are not moudly. Once a week he gets 1/4 L soja milk and a 1/2 soja dessert.

 

The big problem (as you can see from the above info) now is that one of the prisons, i.e, where Martin, Sabine, Jan and Leo are being held, is doing a really bad job of providing vegan food.

 

A small group of people from what remains of the vegan society, Austria with the assistance of the UK Vegan Prisoner Support Group are trying to get communication going with the prisons regarding the food.

 

Request:

 

Paula has been asked to send a request to people who may have given talks or held workshops at the Animal Rights Gathering 2007 last year in Holland, Europe.

 

She needs short official statements from these people that we can use as part of the defence to argue that this event was not about planning or encouraging illegal activities.

 

Please email [email protected] with any information and I will either pass it on or send you a direct contact to deal with (as you wish).....

 

Further reading:

 

www.austriansolidarity.com

[VeganEssentials]

And here I thought that things like this only happened here in the USA...