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One Hundred Raids on Italian Radicals, Sixty Detained, Numerous Firebombings

Francisco Rojas frojas@genoaresistance.org writes:


"Yesterday morning (Tuesday, 18th September) there were about 100 raids all over Italy, and 60 people taking in for questioning by police.

Under the orders of the State Prosecutor for Milan, Stephano D´Amburoso, there were police raids in twenty Italian cities. The State Prosecutor is conducting an investigation against the movement "Solidarieta Internazionale" which had actively supported the prisoners resistance in Spain against the introductions Control Units (F.I.E.S.) as well as in Greece. The movement is accused of involvement in the bombings of Church of Sant´Ambrogio (28.06.00), the Cathedral of Milan (18.12.00) and the Carabinieri Station [National Police] (26.10.99), all of which are in Milan, Italy.


Undercover cops, Digos (Political Police), Celere (Riot Police/Swat Team) stormed a squat, Villa Occupata, in Milan. The ground floor was ruined and files and computer equipment were confiscated. 12 people were taken in for questioning.


In Pisa, at 7am a private apartment and later the office of an ecological group were raided. Files, particularly those relating to the support of
prisoners in Spain, as well as the computer hard drives were confiscated.


In Modena, police raided two squats, La Scintilla and La Rivalsa, and evicted all the occupants of the La Rivalsa squat. Some people were taken to
the police station for questioning.


Similar coordinated raids in Torino, Padova, Trieste, Aosta, Nuoro,
Cagliari, Grosseto, Cuneo, Firenze, Catania, Orvieto, Venezia, Mestre,
Vittorio Veneto, Sacile and Mondovi.


To the best of our knowledge, all those taken in for questioning were
released by yesterday evening. 17 persons will continue to be investigated
under Paragraph 270bis. (Subversive Association and Subversive
Organizations, part of a very severe `Anti-Terror´ law).


All those targeted yesterday were Anarchists. As this is taking place after
the g8 Summit in Genoa and before the NATO Summit in Naples it is clear that
these actions were motivated by an attempt to surpress the organizing and>not only by the previous bombings sited by the State Prosecutor.
Pinelli Social Center in Genoa and Memorial to Carlo Guliani targeted by fascist fire bombs.

In the early morning hours on Sunday (16.09.01) two firebombs were thrown at the Pinelli Social Center (Anarchist). No one was inside the center at the time, however the interior was gutted and everything inside, including
computer equipment was destroyed. The following night, the memorial in
Piazza Alimonda to Carlo Guiliani (murdered by police during g8 Summit in
July) was destroyed by another fire bomb. These attacks are believed to be
the work of security services, either directly or through the encouragement
of local skinheads.

Repression against Migrants in Genoa


Yesterday evening, 74 people, mostly North Africans, were deported as
`threats to society´. This is part of a broader campaign of State
Repression.


One serious legal charge dropped against protestor at g8 Summit in Genoa.

The second protestor identified from photos around Carlo Guliani´s murder in
Piazza Alimonda, Genoa, 23 year old Eurialio, who had been accused of being
an accessory to attempted murder of a policeman, had his charges reduced to resisting a policeman.

www.genoaresistance.org

repubblica newspaper reports translated (english)
by black bollock 7:07am Wed Sep 19 '01
blackbollock@hotmail.com
all times for 18/9/01

Milan 12.20
Terrorism Police blitz also in Lombardia
Raids are taking place also in Milan in the context of an operation which
takes in various northern Italian cities among them Padova. In the
Lombardian capital four habitations have been raided and a palazzina
("little palace" squat?) in Litta ModignaniStreet, held as a base for
Milanese exponents of the anarco-insurrectionist movement.

Milan 12.50
Antiterrorism blitz, twenty people under investigation
Twenty people under investigation, all related to the area of anarcho
insurrectionism, in the inquest conducted by pm Stefano Dambruoso who
carried out the raids taking place in Milan and other northern cities.
The Gip Maurizio Grigo is evaluating the positions of those under
investigation. The hypothetical charge is that of subversive association
leading to acts of terrorism. In particular the inquest is focusing on
throwing light on who was responsible for the acts of violence carried out
with explosive devices which were found in Milan on the 18th June 2000 in
the Sant'Ambrogio Basilica (church), and the 18th December of the same year
on one of the walk ways of the spires of the Milan Dome (church).

Milan 13.50
Anti-terrorism blitz, 60 under investigation 60 people have been
served notice that they are under investigation for association
leading to terrorism, related to an inquest regarding the
anarco-insurrectionist movement. There have been 100 raids, still in
progress, carried out in all Italy by the Digos of the Milan questura
(police station). The inquest is particularly regarding the
"International Solidarity" movement, some of whose components may be
held responsible for the attempted attacks on the Sant'Ambrogio di
Milano church, the Duomo di Milano and the Musocco-Milano carabinieri
station (military police) (where a 150 gram plastic explosive letter
bomb addressed to the military police was defused on the 26 October
1999). Some of the raids were on anarchist centres connected to the
insurrection movement but that had nothing to do with FAI (the Italian
Anarchist Federation) according to investigators. Some of the people
involved in these raids had also participated in the demonstrations
against the G8 in Genoa.

Trieste, 16.19
Terrorism: seized in the city of Trieste, information material and numerous
documents have been siezed by Trieste Digos agents in the course of raids
carried out this morning on the orders of the Republic's power of attorney
of Milan.
There were five raids overall (in Trieste) and they took place in private
residences in the city and in the suburbs, particularly in the Carso area.
During the raids no arms, ammunition or other explosive materials were
found.