We are relaunching solidarity with Andreas Krebs, who is facing a very difficult situation in the prison of Secondigliano (Naples), all the more so as he is seriously ill. We learned about his situation from an imprisoned anarchist comrade who spent some time in jail with Andreas in Germany, and we started corresponding with him (Andreas speaks and reads Italian fluently but has some trouble with writing).
Since this rather outdated summary that we are reproducing here from a blog in solidarity with him, his health condition has deteriorated further and his lawyer has confirmed that the court of Naples has repeatedly refused to accept claims submitted by the defence up to September last year, demanding acknowledgement of the incompatibility of his health situation with imprisonment. Meantime Andreas has been waiting for a biopsy which was ordered urgently over a year ago.
Andreas is in absolute need of solidarity from outside!
Against all jails!
Alongside those who struggle!
Cassa AntiRep delle Alpi occidentali
SOLIDARITY WITH ANDREAS KREBS
A SUMMARY (SITUATION UP UNTIL JULY 2019)
Our friend and comrade Andreas is currently being held in Naples. Since his incarceration in Germany, he has made himself known as a rebel prisoner. In April 2019 he was sentenced to 24 years in Italy. Moreover, he was recently diagnosed with kidney cancer. His health is deteriorating and we fear for his life. As a matter of fact, he should have already had surgery a few months ago but the authorities refuse to transfer him to hospital.
Andreas has been in the German judiciary machine for years and has been in prison for a total of 16 years. He is a rebel prisoner, he took part in the creation of the union for prisoners (GGBO) behind bars, he went on hunger strike several times against prison conditions and he also took part in an hunger strike in solidarity with prisoners in Greece. Presently he writes regularly against the prison society, describing daily life in captivity.
After his release in autumn 2014, he met his wife Jutta. They decided to spend a tranquil retirement in southern Italy. At the end of December 2016 Andreas clashed with an ex-employer, who had assaulted him and was trying to strangle him. Andreas struck him with a penknife in self-defence. Unfortunately the victim died in hospital three days later in mysterious circumstances, even though they had said he would survive.
What followed was an unprecedented hunt for Andreas and Jutta. Jutta received death threats through Facebook, whereas Andreas was attacked and tortured by relatives of the deceased man in the prison of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, the latter still in that jail. When a surveillance video confirmed Andreas’s declaration that he had been defending himself, he was put under house arrest several days later. There they were exposed to continuous “visits” from the police and the hatred of many local people. The family of the victim put their home under siege so that Andreas and Jutta were unable to go out for weeks. In the end they felt compelled to run away and they returned to Germany, where Andreas was arrested less than six months later, in September 2017, on a European arrest warrant and with the collaboration of the German antiterrorism police unit.
In December 2017 he was unexpectedly transferred to the prison of Burg by masked police of another antiterrorism police squad. Andreas repeatedly wrote letters about the intolerable conditions in the jails of Volkstädt and Burg. In April 2018 he was taken to the prison of Moabit in Berlin for extradition and was later taken to Italy as German citizen in May 2018.
Since then Andreas has been held in the prison of Secondigliano, one of the biggest high security prisons in Naples. The trial against him has been held there since 30th May 2018. A number of hearings took place in November 2018, in which Andreas’s wife was also involved. In court, the victim’s family tried to attack Jutta and threatened her heavily again.
On 1st April 2019 the trial concluded the first grade with a 24-year sentence for premeditated murder. Andreas was already physically and mentally affected by the conditions of detention endured in the prisons of Volkstedt, Burg and more recently Berlin-Moabit. His critical health condition was systematically ignored and denied. He was repeatedly refused medicines, health tests and operations. Moreover, his prison conditions have worsened since the German police falsely attributed close relations with ex-RAF members to him.
In Italy Andreas’s health hasn’t improved at all. On the contrary: he was recently diagnosed with kidney tumour. In recent weeks he has had to face acute kidney failure. He is suffering heavy water retention all over his body, particularly in the legs, and at times he cannot even walk. However he is being refused a transfer to hospital and an operation, which has been urgent for months and also promised by the prison governor. Andreas is as rebellious as always, he is involved with other prisoners and continuously speaks out about the violent daily life in the jail of Secondigliano, the arbitrariness of the guards, the lack of care and insufficient deliveries to all prisoners and racism against African prisoners.
Andreas is happy with any kind of support!
For money contributions (he has to pay for medicines and decent food):
Recipient: Krebs
IBAN: DE 90 1005 0000 1067 1474 26
BIC: BELADE BEXXX
Reason for payment: Spende/Andreas Krebs
Write to Andreas (even just a card can break isolation). You can also send books, newspapers, magazines and paper in colour (he is very interested in motorbikes and philosophy).
