!!! Stop corrupt collaboration between German and Nigerian Governments in performing unlawful and forced deportations !!!
Invitation for press conference and attendance of legal trial on September 18th 2013
!!! United against colonial injustice !!!
Location of press conference: in front of the district court building, Turmstrasse 91, 10559 Berlin
Start of press conference: 11:00 am
Start of legal trial: 12:00 am
(the Nigerian Deputy Ambassador has been summoned to court as a witness!)
„We have to stop the practice of deportations and we must therefore not accept neither tolerance nor tacit consent in this matter.“ - Hatef Soltani
!!! Stop corrupt collaboration between German and Nigerian Governments in performing unlawful and forced deportations !!!
Ladies and Gentlemen,
we hereby sincerely invite you to participate in our press conference on Wednesday 9/18/2013. We, political activists of the Refugee Protest March from Würzburg to Berlin would like to inform you about the ongoing repressive persecution efforts performed by the German judiciary system against our political protest inside and in front of the Nigerian Embassy in October 15th 2012 as well as the related racist police brutality on that day. Refugee and supporting activists, who are legally accused of different putative offences, will be pleased to answer your questions in detail.
October 15th 2012 was the very day, when the Nigerian Embassy was a stage of politics for refugee activists, who shortly before finalized their protest march of refugees from Würzburg to Berlin to repeatedly and insistently scandalize the still ongoing corrupt and inhuman collaboration between the German and the Nigerian governments as to submit illegal and forceful deportation of Africans in a deeply colonial fashion. They had and still have to face extensive repressive actions against their justified protest by means of direct excessive police brutality (including numerous arrests in and outside of the embassy) as well as serial threats of punishment against those, who had been arrested and further participants of the protest. The obvious intention behind this ‚regular‘ ‚legal‘ practice is to discredit the political content of our protest as well as to cover up and justify unlawful police action and violent misconduct in arrears. We will not step back in silence in the face of still ongoing colonial injustice and we keep on to clearly and publicly raise our voices against the sellout of deported human beings to Africa by specifically addressing the known facts and irresponsible crimes of the governments involved.
(https://thevoiceforum.org/node/3007)
On September 18th 2013 there will also be the second date in the legal trial against our activist Hatef Soltani at the District Court of Berlin Tiergarten/Moabit for alleged ‘trespassing’ the Nigerian Embassy. The judge of trial Mr. Schwanitz invited the Deputy Ambassador of Nigeria as a witness to the court as to produce a statement regarding the allegations signed into by him personally.
There are even more than this one case pending against our political activists as 15 of them have been arrested inside the Nigerian embassy and several more from the supporting rally outside. Here are those for example whose legal trials were already opened:
Against Thomas Ndindah for alleged ‘violent resistance against the police’ (https://thevoiceforum.org/node/3270 and https://thevoiceforum.org/node/3278)
Against Claudio Feliziani for alleged ‘trespassing’ (https://thevoiceforum.org/node/3273)
Against Mahdiye Tayefeh Kalhori for alleged trespassing (https://thevoiceforum.org/node/3316)
…and still many more are to follow.
The majority of the cases that have been opened so far could, are not judged upon yet (2 of them postponed), as substantial prove of guilt worthy action could not be established yet. The prosecutor on the bench, Mr. Winkler is trying to produce himself as a hardliner, misreading the sole non-violent „entering“ of the public space of an embassy as an accountable trespassing assault. He explicitly refuses any recognition of the legal political right to protest in terms of a basic right to freedom of speech by labeling the protest reasons and history as „irrelevant“. In case one would like to follow this single-sided line of argumentation with respect to legally protected interests, the evaluation of our years of active resistance (a history of years of protest with less „invasive“ means[*]) would be deemed to be of no relevance to the court’s decision and neither the violation of international and basic rights and laws should be a matter at all. On the other hand the demand for a statement towards the allegations for illegal collaboration against the content of the international treaty of the Human Rights Charta as well as against the German and Nigerian Constitution was once again denied – so just by not agreeing to be turned away again with no answer in political protest and strongly insisting for an answer through the Deputy Ambassador, trespassing shall be the crime to be punished “lawfully”. This approach of persecution can only be taken as evidence that every public controversy about the consequences of this very unlawful action of state authorities shall be repressed and our reasonable and peaceful protest against it must be criminalized thoroughly.
[*] continuous public information and repeated public protests since 2007 ( https://thevoiceforum.org/node/899), first online petition tot he Nigerian Embassy in 4/2008 including a postcard-action 5/2008. (https://thevoiceforum.org/node/742), parlamentarian query to the German government (10/2008 http://www.ulla-jelpke.de/uploads/1610515_Sammelanh%F6rungen.pdf) and last not least our actiondays against the deportation collaboration of Nigerian Embassy officials in 5/2012 with handing over a warning letter to the Nigerian president through the Ambassador (https://thevoiceforum.org/node/2551)
On September 26th 2013 Mbolo Yufanyi Movuh, another activist of the „Caravan for the Rights of Refugees and Migrants in Germany“ and “The VOICE Refugee Forum” who is consistently participating in the struggle against deportation policies will be trialed in the District Court of Berlin-Tiergarten for alleged “resistance against police officers in the name of the law” in reaction of him being unlawfully beaten by the very police officers in charge.
We again invite you explicitly to be part of the trial of the day against Hatef Soltani as to draw your own inside picture of the ongoing ‘state of law’ in Germany:
September 18th 2013,
Trial starts at 12:00 am,
Court room 768
Any solidary support as well as involvement of media is very much welcome.
"Resistance becomes an obligation, when any German state is trying to criminalize legitimate political protest against the continuity of colonial crimes against humanity perpetrated by German State !"
Deportation is a Crime against Humanity!
Mbolo Yufanyi Movuh (en/fr/de +49170 8788124, the_voice_berlin@emdash.org)
Thomas Ndindah (de +49176 99621504, hailetomassi@gmx.de)
Hatef Soltani (farsi/de +49157 83990079, hatef.soltani2013@gmail.com)
Mahdiye Tayefeh Kalhori (farsi/de, mahdiyeh_121@yahoo.de)
Claudio Feliziani (it/fr/en/de +49178 7271595, claudiofeliziani@inwind.it)
Rex Osa (en/de/bini +49176 27873832, thevoice_bdw@yahoo.de)
Osaren Igbinoba (en +49176 24568988, thevoiceforum@gmx.de)
E-Mail: the_voice_berlin@emdash.org
More information:
https://thevoiceforum.org/search/node/Nigerian%20Embassy (de/en)