The final day of the trial in the “We are conspiring” case took place on July 15. According to the prosecution, during the night of February 16, 2023, the accused wanted to set fire to the German railway company’s cables. The prosecution pleaded acquittal at the end of its closing arguments, citing lack of evidence. The lawyers also pleaded for acquittal, which the judge, after 15 minutes’ consideration, pronounced!
Here’s the statement the two defendants read together after the lawyers’ closing arguments:
We were arrested 17 months ago. We sat isolated from each other for a day and a half in the detention center on Tempelhofer Damm (Berlin) and were brought before a custodial judge. We then had to report to a cop station around 85 times and scribble our signatures on a piece of paper to prove that we had not yet evaded trial. Our DNA was taken and run through databases. For a total of 15 days, we were being surveilled by the secret police in our daily lives, with our friends and comrades, and had our home entrances filmed. For a few days now, we sat in front of this court where our guilt is being tried.
We didn’t say anything then and we won’t say anything now about why we were in the place where we were arrested. This blank space only underlines what became clear in court during those few days: That the police and judiciary are in the dark. Our DNA in the databases has revealed nothing for you. Your surveillance has apparently led to no relevant results. There is nothing left but a sensational story to satisfy the states‘ need for persecution and being able to present the necessary „successes“.
The political order does not require moral integrity, but compliance with the law.
The lack of motivation, with which the investigation and the main trial were conducted by the investigating authority, whether out of incompetence or arrogance, and also the humorous insights into the criminalistic skills of some federal police officers, could almost hide the fact that we are sitting here before an instance of class-judiciary.
When we talk about class-judiciary, we think that we are still sitting here in a rather privileged position. At the same time, however, we do not forget whose rights are being enforced here.
We don’t forget the countless tenants who are sentenced to homelessness by German courts. Not the thousands in German prisons whose only crime is their poverty or their origin.
We have not forgotten that every uniformed perpetrator and even the last NSU supporter can leave the courtroom laughing, while the de facto abolition of the right to asylum perpetuates colonial continuities and those affected by sexualized and racist violence can only expect new violence in German courts.
We will not forget how German laws and officials are enabling the most massive militarization of the Federal Republic of Germany since reunification in this so-called „Zeitenwende“(turning point), and how German arms companies are continuously profiting from genocide and war all over the world.
And let us never forget that it was people in judicial uniforms who, just a few meters from here, let Ferhat Mayouf burn to death in a prison cell.
This trial is just one of many attempts these days to persecute anarchist and anti-fascist individuals and structures and force them to surrender to state pressure, occupation through repression and the threat of harsh punishment. The so-called democratic center of society tries to remove the disruptive elements that expose their (value) system as oppressive and unfree. Not for justice but to keep their conscience clear.
However, we can see everywhere in Europe just how far this middle class is from openly sympathizing with the rise of fascism.
The fact that our responses to this cannot be based on bourgeois legislation has been proven historically and, accordingly, no further words will be lost in this building.
Instead, we want to end with a few words of affinity:
Not a moment of this trial did we have to endure alone. For us, this solidarity is an expression of the power and beauty of revolutionary ideas.The support we have received here in this court and which has also accompanied and sustained us outside of it for a year and a half is unfortunately not always a given.
In particular, we would like to thank those who welcomed us outside the detention center after our arrest, those who have continuously backed us over these past months and those unknown near and far, whose greetings have always filled our hearts with joy.
Last but not least, we would like to thank our lawyers, whose support and commitment we have always been able to rely on.
Whatever judgment is ultimately passed on us here: We are certain that the need for a world of dignity, freedom, self-determination and justice cannot be negotiated in a courtroom.
And we will leave this courtroom with the certainty that neither the state security, the prosecutors nor this court have any idea what we really think, want or do. And that remains, despite all the adversities, a very satisfying feeling.“
Freedom for all prisoners!
Freedom & happiness to the comrades on the run!
We are conspiring!