Letter of Moreno Pasquinelli, spokesman of the Anti-imperialist Camp, from prison
To the presiding council of the Free Iraq Committees
To all the Free Iraq Committees
Dear friends and comrades,
You know that in connection with our arrest, the judicial authorities imposed the sequestration of the web site www.iraqlibero.net because it is supposed to have “spread the activity of the terrorist organisation DHKC-P” as the order reads.
This sensational falsehood (the site never spread anything related with the DHKC-P) does, however, show the real aims of this repressive attack we fell victim to.
This is also, if not foremost, a strike against the movement in solidarity with the Iraqi anti-imperialist resistance which the Free Iraq Committees paved the way for and which they have been advocates of.
You know how far-fetched the accusation which we were detained for is: “In full consciousness and declared intention” we are supposed to have supported the “terrorist activities” of the Turkish/Kurdish liberation movement DHKC-P. We are also accused of “having participated in the terrorist association DHKC-P”.
We reject these accusations as false and void of any basis or plausibility.
I may be guilty of having given help to a political militant sought for and persecuted by the military and anti-democratic Turkish regime, one of the most bloodthirsty of those which do the bidding of the US. Furthermore it is a watchdog for Israel and Zionism. I helped him to find a home, a job and right of residence. For this I admit my guilt. The accusation sustains that our Turkish friend at the time is supposed to have played a senior role in maintaining the contacts with the “terrorist” structures of the DHKC-P operating in Turkey.
While it remains to be demonstrated that the actions of the Kurdish and Turkish guerrilla can be classified as “terrorist”, there can be no doubt about the fact that I, Maria Grazia and Alessia knew absolutely nothing about them.
The indictment invokes the “common position” assumed by the Council of the imperialist European Union (Nos. 930 and 931 dated December 27, 2001) referring to the struggle against terrorism. Yet the accusation treads on the European directive which affirms that “whether an offence is punishable depends on the participation or on forms of financing or on support provided that there is consciousness that such participation contributes to the criminal activity of the terrorist organisation”.
The accusation will never be able to demonstrate something which is false: neither that we deliberately participated in the DHKC-P, nor that we indirectly and consciously supported the alleged “criminal activities”.
I want to point out that article 29 of the European Union treaty referring to the struggle against “terrorism” speaks at the same time of “protection – in a space of liberty – of security and justice …… of the human rights and dignity, of the right to free thinking, expression and information” – all rights clearly trampled upon and despised by the Turkish military regime. Actually the European Union requested full compliance with these rights and even rendered it a condition for the admission of Turkey into the European Union.
The accusation furthermore refers to article …§270bis of criminal law, worsened by the changes implemented by the two party system on December 15, 2001 – worsened in the sense that “terrorist association” is classified as an “association pursuing international aims”.
If it is impossible to consider the Turkish/Kurdish guerrilla as “terrorist activity”, it is even more impossible to have it subsumed under the figure of “international terrorism”. Even from the very indictment, it emerges that the guerrilla operates only on Turkish/Kurdish soil and has chosen exclusively military target and not civilian ones.
Thus the recent sentence of the Italian supreme court (cass. Sez. VI, 25/12/2003) assumes decisive juridical succinctness interpreting the changes made to 270bis: “One can be persecuted for international terrorism but not for subversion against a foreign state.” The same court specified that “subversion means the restricted aim of subverting the constitutional order and to do away with the pluralistic and democratic order of the state”.
There is no pluralistic and democratic order in Turkey. Everybody knows how the opposition is repressed and how the national minorities are persecuted. It is known that behind a puppet parliament the real power resides in the hands of a mafia oligarchy represented by the “National Security Council” where the generals pull the strings.
Therefore it is not the Turkish regime – which instructed the procurators in Rome and Perugia in this grotesquery – but those opposing it who defend human rights and the (absent) rule of law which should protect them.
This leads me to the most important considerations. Not is only our freedom at stake, but the entire battle for truth which we have been conducting not only on the Iraqi question but also on the Italian situation.
We will contest the paradigm underpinning the accusations which equates liberation struggles with terrorism, in this case international terrorism. Actually if the accusation against us were to pass – “having participated in the terrorist association DHKC-P” – all of you who support the legitimate Iraqi resistance could be incarcerated with the same inquisitional construct which in fact serves as a pretext. This would be of unprecedented gravity. As I said elsewhere:
“If this happens we will have to face not only a lesion of the rule of law but its virtual suspension. It would mean that we have moved over to an arbitrary tyranny banning the main movement which accuses the US of being the prime threat to human civilisation. All this reminds us of the grave responsibilities of the Berlusconi-Pisanu government.”
This has been spelled out to tell you that you must be sure of our innocence with regard to the accusations made against us and that you must be sure of what is really at stake: the right of the Iraqi resistance to be defended from Italian soil – which implies not only liberty of expression in this country but also the simple affirmation of the national sovereignty of Italy.
Long live the Iraqi resistance!
Italy out of Iraq!
US out of Italy!
Long live the Palestinian Intifada!
Moreno Pasquinelli
From the prison cell of Rebibbia
April 2004
