The 7th day of the trial of Revolutionary Struggle began with the interventions of advocates D.Vagianou, K.Dailianas, S.Fitrakis, and A.Paparousou concerning the freezing of accounts carried out by the independent Authority of Fighting the Legalization of Income from Criminal Activities and the Financing of Terrorism and Controlling of the Wealth situation Statements, without the defendants been convicted for terrorism offences. Which means that a trial begins without the evidence of innocence suggesting that offences have been committed. Since a specific Higher Authority has decided that the accused are guilty of terrorism offences, what is the reason to continue this trial, stressed S.Fitrakis. One demand of the advocates is that the judges give a guarantee that the accused are still on trial and their frozen wealth can be returned to them.
S.Nikitopoulos intervening stated that they classify him in the list of people who are suspects of state terrorism, while corrupt politicians and businessmen are absent. He claimed that as an anarchist he does not have illusions because he knows how far state oppression can go, but article 187A dismisses the evidence of innocence and blatantly standardize offences.
The judge announced that the advocates can take the document that confirms that the trial is in progress from the secretariat.
After that, P.Roupa noted that the dismissal of the application to exclude K.Papathanasakis as a witness was expected, since it is a trial clearly political with an evident convergence between the juridical body and the oppressive mechanisms. It is document of official charges which is up in the air and since K.Papathanasakis will testify whatever they transferred to him he cannot be evaluated, thus closes the road for the judges to judge what’s right and what’s wrong. Anyway, she stressed “you are here as political figures and not as judges”. Continuing, P.Roupa accused Papathanasakis of being a murderer and torturer who has a lawsuit pending against him for the murder of a Pakistani immigrant, when he was serving in Nikea police station in 2008, while he was the one who abused and tortured K.Gournas. This is the kind of person that will support this whole corroded list of official charges.
Followed the testimony of Papathanasakis with the judge and prosecutor asking some formal questions, while he provocatively answered most with “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember”, making it impossible for him to give a detailed account about the investigation he carried out. Specifically he claimed that he was present only at two initial surveillances, while for the rest he simply gathered oral statements and not written. When the advocates attacked him saying that ‘when a witness states facts from third party information, they are obliged to name the source of their information’, he answered that he cannot remember the names of his sources because the whole anti-terrorist force was in the operation, which means 100-200 people.
More specifically, to the questions of the prosecutor and judge, Papathanasakis mentioned tha the reason for the surveillances was the clash in Dafni with L.Foundas in the house of which they found a phonecard from which two phonecalls had been made to two specific numbers which belong to N.Maziotis and V.Stathopoulos. Also he testified that in the possession of V.Stathopoulos was found a note with mobile numbers and coded names which belong to S.Nikitopoulos and Ch.Kortesis and only accepted phonecalls from cardphones (payphones). The mobile of S.Nikitopoulos had not received any calls while the other mobile was not even found in the possession of Ch.Cortesis. In the trial brief also, of the 149 calls made to the latter mobile, only 15 were recorded, those made from a cardphone. To G.Rahiotis question why this happened, Papathanasakis said that the rest of the calls were not considered important. Obviously though the recording of the other calls was not in the interest of Papathanasakis and his service, because the theory that the mobile phone had a conspiratorial function, would collapse immediately. As for the person who listen to the calls live, Papathanasakis does not remember who it was.
Another point on which the advocates focused on was the meeting in Kesariani. According to the testimony of Papathanasakis, from a phone discussion that took place on 31/3/2010, the service was very legitimately lead to the conclusion that the organization is preparing a hit and characterized the meeting in Kesariani conspiratorial, because N.Mazitotis left the car far away and wore sunglasses to the meeting point. He hid of course the fact that the meeting took place in the mornig, that the accused V.Stathopoulos, S.Nikitopoulos and Ch.Cortesis had parked the their car and motorbikes in the parking lot next to the meeting point, that they stood at the parking lot for a minute and spoke in public view and nothing conspiratorial took place at that meeting.
Quite pressing was advocate M.Daliani concerning the testimony of Papathanasakis according to which V.Stathopoulos on 5/4/2010 went towards Hymitos to a deserted area, in which gunshots were later heard. After a little while V.Stathopoulos left and after an investigation they found bullet shells, which were not identified with the guns, which means that he went there to practise shooting. The advocate presented a document of the autopsy report that mentions that this specific incident took place on 11/4/2010, while V.Stathopoulos had already been arrested since 9/4/2010. To the question of the advocate how this could have happened, Papathanasakis answered that its the first time he notices the contradiction.
Especially contradicting was also the evidence he gave concerning the surveillance of the home of V.Stathopoulos on Likourgou street, which he named a lair. According the report of his inferiors, V.Stathopoulos and Ch.Kortesis left the house on Likourgou street and with a motorbike head to the house of comrade V.Stathopoulos where the latter gets off. After a couple of hours Ch.Kortesis comes out of the house on Likourgou street, without anyone noticing him going in again, this time accompanied by N.Maziotis where they get into a renault megane. According to police information, the car had Audi licence plates and had been stolen inThessaloniki. To the question of the advocates how could Ch.Kortesis come out twice from the house, while seen going in just once, Papathanasakis answered that probably it is an omission of the police officers who preformed the surveillance, without of course naming the officers.
A particular interest was presented by a series of questions by the advocates whether if during the surveillance they collected evidence for individual actions.
To questions such as:
‘Did they realize the access of some of the accused to the houses named as “lairs” during the surveillance?’
‘During the surveillance of the phones did someone get traced live planning a punishable act?’
‘Was one of the accused traced making a call from a cardphone?’
‘Were fingerprints of the accused found in any of the houses “lairs”, guns or cars?
‘What punishable act results from the meeting in a public place of some people who have friendly relations or from the visit of a person to friends or relatives house?’
the answers of Papathanasakis were negative, stressing that the only punishable act that took place was the use of a stolen car and that their arrest took place for preventive reasons.
G.Rahiotis insisted especially on the fact that the American embassy had put a bounty of $1.000.000 on Revolutionary Struggle and addressing the witness asked if he received that money. Papathanasakis answered that he knows nothing about money and if the advocate wants he can address the American embassy to find out. Finally the advocate revealed that during the holding of Ch.Kortesis in GADA (central police headquarters of Athens), the latter weirdly denied the use of his advocate while the advocate himself insistently asked to see him for 2 days, but they wouldn’t allow him to. Papathanasakis provocatively answered once more answered that he is not aware that this happened.
The trial will continue on Monday 12/12/2011 where Papathanasakis will be examined by the rest of the advocates.
translation by boubourAs/Actforfreedomnow!
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