What happened?
Remark: these texts have already been published on the 5th of January on Indymedia and knack.news
Free Benni – Pre-trial arrest and house raids in the fight against repression
Today, on the 5th of January our companion Benni has been sent into custody in Leipzig prison.
What happened?
On 23 November 2023, the cops once again carried out a large-scale raid against the autonomous scene in Leipzig (1). It wasn’t enough to tear apart flats and demand DNA for trivialities. This time they are increasing the pressure even more by making every already shitty court case even scarier in the future. Uniformed “elite police officers” were waiting outside the courtroom of the regional court where the Luwi71 trial (2) was being heard, accompanied by the disgusting smear sheet writer Karl Keim (3). There is no doubt that this was intended as a demonstration of power after the riots on so-called Day X in June. The official aim of this spectacle was to search houses and take DNA from both defendants once again as well as to put comrade Benni in custody. The home of a third person was also searched. Here they searched unsuccessfully for pyrotechnics, black clothes and newspapers with handicraft instructions and took away the well-encrypted technical devices. The accusations against the three people are not connected. While two people are accused of separate charges in the context of the events following the judgement in the Antifa-East trial(4), the third companion is accused of arson on DHL cars in response to house searches that happened in February 2023 (5). Combining those measures has likely been a bundling of forces and an intended larger threat scenario.
Benni, the comrade condemned to pre-trial detention, did not appear in court that day, which turned out to be great luck. He turned himself in today on 5 January 24. However, there is no question of voluntary surrender here, but rather of the bitter realisation that freedom ends as soon as your name appears on the detention order – whether in the sentence-free punishment of pre-trial detention, through an obviously politically enforced trial or in the open-air prison of exile.
Day X.
Benni is accused of having thrown an incendiary device at police officers at Alexis-Schuhmann-Platz on 3 June. The fireproof uniforms of two officers of the notorious USK Dachau are said to have caught fire. Apart from a proper scare, nobody was injured. The USK units, known internally by the police as “Koksies”, often attract attention due to incitement to hatred and rape scandals and are not exactly known to be gentle (6).
According to the investigating authorities, the offence justifies the accusation of attempted manslaughter. Their evidence is based on the entire arsenal of repressive methods, including searching the parents’ homne, the workplace, left-wing journalists and the 12-hour encirclement of over 1000 people (7).
The so called “Day X” we are writing about was the mobilisation of anti-fascists to demonstrate in Leipzig on Saturday after the court judgement of the politically-led Antifa-East trial in order to express solidarity and defend autonomous anti-fascism. The four people accused were sentenced to long prison terms on flimsy “evidence”, in some cases without being able to prove any direct involvement (8).
Apparently, the repressive authorities of the city, courts and police realised what they had done in recent years and panic spread. A fear of angry anti-fascists and an embarrassing weep about how powerless the thousands of police forces would be if they had to comply with democratic assembly rights. Then the overpowering autonomists would be impossible to control, like on 18 September 2021 or 12 December 2015. There is certainly not everything wrong about that. The anger was known to everyone who has been listening over the last few years and yes, it would have been difficult to control. But that seems to be enough of an excuse to abolish civil democracy for a weekend. The fact that anonymously published calls were used for legitimisation should not hide the fact that they would have banned the demonstration anyway, as already happened with the anti-repression demonstration “Alle zusammen – Autonom, Widerständig, Unversöhnlich!” on 23.10.21 (9).
As a reaction to the judgement in the Antifa Ost trial, there were uncontrollable moments on both Wednesday and Friday before the big Day X in which the police were surprised, got a good beating and the crowd could simply let off some steam. The long-planned encirclement on Saturday showed that their main concern was to prevent this large-scale mobilised mass riot and to detain, traumatise and repress as many people as possible (10).
Lets move on!
The mobilisation for Day X was justified. Even if the price of the day is high, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have been tried. Years of increasing repression and the everyday shift to the right by society and its institutions demanded a response or at least an attempt to counter the whole thing. Every three months there are (mostly illegal) harassment house searches in Connewitz, which basically make every one of us indirectly affected. The feeling of being alone in the fight against fascist activities and then being “rewarded” with observation and imprisonment on top of that. It is a sad reality that, in addition to our everyday exploitation, the state can now even punish the last thing we have left by loosening §129: Solidarity and friendship. Who wouldn’t feel angry or look away there…
It is nice to see that first signs of solidarity have already been sent out into the world. The struggle continues, even in times of persecution and imprisonment. Together against their society of exploitation, borders and prisons!
Freedom, luck and strength to all people in hiding!
Love and trust to all anti-fascists!
Free Benni!
2 https://leipzigbesetzen.noblogs.org/
4 https://tagxantifaost.noblogs.org/
6 https://amnesty-polizei.de/polizei-skandal-in-muenchen/
https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/polizist-wegen-vergewaltigung-verurteilt-revision-beantragt
8 https://www.soli-antifa-ost.org