The state uses the imprisonment of political leaders and rank-and-file activists as a bludgeon against movement victories. Their incarceration is a reminder of the strength, potential, and, just as crucially, the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of radical mass movements. As a result, political prisoners serve collective prison time for all those who participated in the movements from which they emerged.
Dan Berger, “The Real Dragons: A Brief History of Political Militancy and Incarceration, 1960s to 2000s”
We return after Palestinian Prisoners’ Day with a renewed commitment to struggle for the freedom of prisoners everywhere, to expand international solidarity, and to tear down the walls that hold hostage the future for which we fight. This month’s In Contempt, a roundup of repression news, political prisoner updates, and prisoner rebellions, is an attempt to prove that repression breeds resistance––but only if we try. Until all are free.
A zine and pamphlet of this column will be available in the coming days to print and share with friends, comrades, and loved ones behind bars.
As always, we welcome contributions at in_contempt @ autistici . org.
The task of revolutionary theory here is to demystify (and thus shrink) the fabricated distance between the various sites/scenes of a global struggle…
Call to Action Against the Mass Execution of Palestinian Prisoners
On Monday, March 30, 2026 – the 50th Palestinian Land Day – the Zionist Knesset adopted the so-called “execution law” targeting Palestinian prisoners with the death penalty.
From Samidoun, Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network:
There are over 9,500 Palestinian prisoners – alongside Lebanese and other Arab prisoners – held in the occupation’s dungeons, already subjected to an institutionalized regime of torture, physical and sexual assault and abuse, medical neglect and mistreatment, whose lives are at risk. Since the launch of Al-Aqsa Flood and the over 2.5 years of genocide in Gaza, over a hundred Palestinian prisoners have already been martyred behind bars, not counting the thousands of Palestinians in Gaza whose bodies were returned in mass graves and bags, shot dead by the occupation, their bodies and organs opened in many cases, with their hands shackled or zip-tied behind their backs.
We must not allow this moment to pass alongside the numerous crimes of the occupation regime. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins our voices with those of the Palestinian resistance movements and prisoners’ organizations to raise our shouts of outrage and to emphasize: This is the time to globalize the intifada, to take the streets in mass mobilization and direct action, to rise up for the prisoners, who sacrifice their freedom and their lives for the liberation of Palestine and the defense of humanity. It is our responsibility to organize and act to save the lives of the prisoners and free them from the horrors of captivity with an uprising for the prisoners, not only in Palestine but everywhere around the world.
Various Palestinian resistancefactions have condemned this act of genocidal terror, with vows to renew the struggle to liberate the thousands of Palestinian prisoners.
In the words of Abu Jamal, spokesman for the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the PFLP,
To the trembling enemy leadership: The approval of the law to execute prisoners is the scream of the helpless in the face of the steadfastness of our leaders and fighters in your cells. You are delusional if you think that gallows will intimidate those who carry their souls in their palms; we are a people who love sacrifice as you love life, and this decision of yours will not bring security or safety to your soldiers and your herds of settlers. The criminal zionists must know, and the fascist and racist criminal Ben-Gvir must hear: Any harm to the life of any hero behind bars will mean opening the gates of hell upon you.
We say to the zionists: Your government is selling you illusions and pushing you toward the abyss. The law to execute prisoners is the “mercy bullet” for your personal security; action will be followed by an explosion in the face of your failed leaders and generals.
The vow of the resistance and the covenant of bullets: We will not have a pleasant life while the prisoners are in danger. The execution decision is a declaration of an open war with no ceiling, and the zionists will see how we turn this decision into a calamity that chases you in every alley and turn; our prisoners are a red line.
On Land Day, we confirm to the delusional enemy that the land from which we suckled steadfastness only produces men who do not break. The law to execute prisoners will only pass over our corpses, and any attempt to harm the lives of our heroes will be confronted by our people and our resistance with all force.
Our prisoners have clung to their cause just as roots cling to the soil, and whoever thinks that the gallows will intimidate us, let them ask the soil of this land about our might.
We warn you against testing our anger; the dignity of our prisoners is from the dignity of our land, and both are a red line, and beyond that is death.
The land is ours, the prisoners are a red line, and the final word belongs to the field.
Kwaneta Harris wrote a moving reflection on Palestinian Prisoner’s Day from Texas state prison, “They Know Our Silence”:
“When the decision was confirmed, all my words failed me. I was trapped inside, and all I could do was remain silent, weep, and cry for the prisoners.”
A Palestinian woman whose husband has been imprisoned for 24 years, upon learning of Israel’s new Prisoners Execution Law, March 2026
I write this from a cell. My words travel through censors before they reach you, and sometimes they do not reach you at all. That alone should tell you something about who controls the narrative of incarcerated people, and why Palestinian Prisoners Day on April 17 is not a foreign cause. It is a mirror.
Palestinian Prisoners Day was established in 1974 to honor those held in Israeli prisons and to demand recognition of their rights under international law. Thousands of Palestinians, including women and children, remain imprisoned, many without formal charges under a practice called administrative detention. Since October 2023, their families have received no visits. Since that same escalation began, Israeli authorities banned lawyers from meeting with prisoners entirely. For over two and a half years, families have had no confirmed word about whether their loved ones are alive, injured, or dead. That isolation is not a side effect of imprisonment. It is the punishment itself.
I know what deliberate silence feels like. I know what it means when the system decides your family does not need to know your condition. I know what it means to be rendered legally invisible while your body is very much present and suffering. That knowledge is why I cannot be quiet about what is happening to Palestinian prisoners. Neither can you.
A new law written in death
On March 30, 2026, the Israeli government passed what is now called the New Prisoners Execution Law. The law applies exclusively to Palestinians. Any Palestinian convicted of an act resulting in the death of an Israeli citizen faces a mandatory death sentence. The conviction does not require a unanimous jury. A simple majority vote is sufficient to end a life. Once sentenced, execution by hanging must be carried out within 90 days, with almost no possibility of pardon. A new prison is already being built specifically to carry out these hangings.
Read that again. A law designed for one ethnic group. Conviction by majority, not unanimity. Death within 90 days. No pardon. A dedicated execution facility already under construction.
If you have spent any time navigating the American legal system, you already recognize the architecture of this. Non-unanimous jury convictions were used in Louisiana and Oregon for decades, disproportionately convicting Black defendants. The death penalty in the United States has never been applied equally across race or class. Legal scholars, civil rights organizations, and formerly incarcerated people have documented this for generations. Like Israel, the United States built discrimination into the procedural fabric of its justice system so that it could be denied. The target was always the same. Only the paperwork changed.
Race, class, and the carceral body
Systems-impacted people in America are not a monolith, but we share a common experience with state power: our bodies have been determined to be threats before we ever acted. Our neighborhoods were policed before we were born. Our poverty was treated as evidence of criminality. Our grief was treated as dangerous. Palestinian prisoners live under the same logic. The occupation determines them to be security threats by virtue of nationality, just as American policing has long determined Black, Brown, and Indigenous people to be suspects by virtue of appearance and address.
The parallels are not accidental. Prison systems globally share intellectual lineage. Solitary confinement, stress positions, sensory deprivation, and deliberate family separation were refined in colonial contexts before they arrived in American supermax facilities. The same logic that built Pelican Bay built the dungeons of Megiddo. We did not invent these tools. We inherited them from the same empire.
Class is the quieter thread in this tapestry, but it runs through everything. The Palestinian prisoners who languish the longest without legal representation are often from the poorest families, the families least able to mount international campaigns or retain private counsel. That is identical to the experience of the American poor who sit in pretrial detention for months or years because they cannot afford $500 bail. Money determines who waits, who dies waiting, and whose case is eventually forgotten. The New Prisoners Execution Law removes even the theoretical protection of an appeals process for those who survive on donated legal aid.
Gender and the invisible prisoner
Palestinian women are imprisoned, too. They are held in facilities where their medical needs go unmet, where menstruation is denied hygiene access, where pregnancy behind bars becomes a political statement made against their will. The erasure of incarcerated women from public discourse is a wound that American women prisoners understand intimately. We are an afterthought in the reform conversation. We are invisible in the statistics until our numbers become useful to a political argument. Palestinian women prisoners are doubly erased: first by their captivity and then by a narrative that centers male combatants while ignoring the women swept into the same detention system for political organizing, for social media posts, for living in a neighborhood deemed hostile.
When I write about being incarcerated and female in Texas, I am writing about the same structural invisibility. The bodies that carry children, that hold families together, that grieve most silently when visitation is cut, are the bodies the system most easily forgets. The wife who wept when the execution law passed, the one whose words failed her, is not an anomaly. She is the expected casualty of a system that treats prisoners as already dead and their families as acceptable collateral.
Resistance has always been cross-border
When Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island, American anti-apartheid organizers picketed, divested, and demanded his release. Many of those organizers had themselves been surveilled, imprisoned, or harassed by American law enforcement. They understood that freedom is not divisible by geography. Their solidarity did not weaken their domestic struggle. It clarified it.
When Palestinian solidarity organizations, in response to the passage of the New Prisoners Execution Law, called a comprehensive strike across the West Bank, shutting down banks, shops, and transportation, they were using the same playbook that Black Americans used during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Economic disruption as moral declaration. The bodies of the people are the machinery of the economy, and when those bodies stop moving, those with power are forced to look at what they have been ignoring. The international human rights organizations being called upon to intervene now are the same organizations that systems-impacted Americans call upon when domestic legal remedies fail.
We are already in relationship with each other. The question is whether we will be conscious of it.
Why your voice matters from where you stand
You may be reading this from a cell, from a halfway house, from the couch of a family member who took you in after release. You may be a mother sending money orders every month to a son you have not touched in years. You may be a lawyer who took a case pro bono and learned something about the gap between written law and lived law. Wherever you are standing, you are standing on ground that was shaped by the belief that some people are disposable.
Palestinian Prisoners Day asks you to look at that belief in its most exposed form and name it for what it is. The New Prisoners Execution Law is not an aberration. It is a logical conclusion of the dehumanization that begins long before any arrest. It is what happens when a system decides that certain lives do not require procedural protections, that their deaths can be scheduled, that their families’ grief is irrelevant.
Systems-impacted Americans did not create that logic, but we have lived under a version of it. Our credibility on this issue is not abstract. It is earned. And our silence, if we choose silence, is a gift we give to every system that has ever confined us.
What solidarity looks like from here
I cannot march. I cannot vote in this election or the next. I cannot call my congressperson from this phone without paying a corporation for the privilege. But I can write. I can tell you what I see when I read about Palestinian prisoners, and what I see is us. I see the non-unanimous verdict that ended someone’s freedom on the word of seven strangers who shared a bias. I see the visitation ban and recognize the specific cruelty of keeping love at a distance as punishment for something that love had nothing to do with. I see the 90-day execution clock and think of every incarcerated person in America who has sat on death row for a decade with no resolution, and I understand that both extremes, the endless wait and the rushed finality, are designed to destroy the human spirit.
Palestinian Prisoners Day is observed every April 17. This year it arrives weeks after a law was passed that authorizes the systematic hanging of Palestinian people based on ethnicity and a majority vote. The international human rights community is being called to respond. Organizations on the ground in the West Bank are committed to sustained protest. Families who have not heard their loved ones’ voices in two and a half years are still waiting.
We who know waiting, we who know the specific quality of silence that a prison imposes, we who have learned that no one fights for you unless you first insist that you are worth fighting for: we have something to say about this. Say it.
Hussam Shaheen, freed last year after 21 years in Zionist prisons, posted this article in The New York War Crimes on the concept of time and resistance in relation to Palestinian political prisoners:
Time, and the language of time in prison literature, is the same as it is everywhere if we adopt the “clock” as its only measure. In captivity, time loses its numerical value; it becomes a feeling, a deep awareness of the self and of the other. It weighs heavier upon the prisoner’s shoulders due to the multiplicity of small and large responsibilities that constantly change, as a result of the continuous confrontation with the occupier. This article addresses the possibilities of transcendence in prisoner literature and attempts to answer the persistent question of temporality in prison, and how time manifests in the life and writing of a Palestinian prisoners. It relies on personal experience as primary material to shed light on the temporal dualities experienced by Palestinian prisoners as they continue their individual and collective struggle for liberation before prison, in prison, and after prison.
It is true that time in life is a philosophical category that may intersect in one way or another with time in literature, which itself fragments into multiple categories of time (astronomical, historical, psychological, physical, philosophical…). With the succession of civilizations, time came to be confined to the triad of past, present, and future, meaning that it lies on a horizontal plane. In other words, human beings determine their temporo-spatial position from their present, which they live and feel, and they return with their memory to the past, while the future for them is an unseen time that humans, from poets to princes, place in the third rank. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, time has moved beyond its own problematic, as it does not exist except through human experience.
When we think about the duality of time and place, we become certain that colonialism always seeks to freeze time in the lives of its victims, and we Palestinians are no exception. The exception is that Zionist colonialism has sought, and continues to seek, to freeze Palestinian time in order to achieve the equation of Judaization and Israelization. If we take the prisoners as a model, we find that Zionist colonialism works relentlessly to freeze time in our lives in order to transform it, and us, into a heavy burden on our world, our people, and our cause. From a profound understanding of this very point, many prisoners have persistently dug an intellectual and literary tunnel with their pens, through which they liberate prison time from the grip of the occupation and present to the world a vision of Palestinian steadfastness by declaring sovereignty over time as an inevitable step toward achieving sovereignty over the land.
If we fail to grasp the nature of this conflict, the will, burdened by political conditions that prevent us from making history, will remain constrained, allowing our adversary to impose upon us their own narrative. For occupied time can only be ruptured through revolution, and revolution requires a liberatory national movement capable of leading and directing it. So what happens when occupied time shatters between the hands of competing organizations who struggle over its illusions? In this context, literary and cultural production inside prison is a victory for the prisoner, his people, and his cause. It is a declaration of his sovereignty over the time stolen from him, just as the cry of every newborn who comes into life from the womb of every Palestinian fighter, who turned her womb into a revolutionary base for launching toward a better future; every newborn conceived through the smuggling of sperm, just as the prisoner Walid Daqqa fathered his daughter Milad from his wife Sana’ Salameh.
How could it be otherwise when the prison is an extremely narrow space? Imagine, for example, that you live with about one hundred and twenty prisoners in the cell block, whose area is slightly more or less than three hundred square meters, and that you remain in the same cell for many years with at least five other prisoners, inside a rectangle seven meters long and three meters wide. Figuratively, this is your entire house (it contains the bedroom, the kitchen and its tools, the dining table, the living room, the bathroom, the shower, the chairs and table, the belongings of all its residents, cupboards, the sink, the trash bin, and the clothesline…). Your private space, therefore, does not exceed two square meters, and you must carry out your life, all social, human, and organizational activities in this space without infringing upon others.
To succeed in doing this, and to overcome all forms of conflict and crisis that may occur between people, especially when they are crowded into such a narrow space, prisoners must rely on shared values and internal understandings. Such is a victory over the place designed to defeat you, even if the jailer ultimately retains the upper hand.
Thus the most mature form of victory for prisoners lies in employing time in their favor by declaring sovereignty over it, obviating the jailer’s domination through continuous rebellion and confrontation. Despite the physical price and harm they endure, they feel the ecstasy of freedom.
MARIUS WILL BE FREE! FREE THEM ALL
Marius will be leaving prison in May 2026 for a halfway house in Detroit. He will have long term support needs as he transitions out of prison life from the past 18 years.
Donate here: supportmariusmason.org/support
From Marius:
Greetings, Friends and Family,
It feels like this will actually happen at this point — so I finally think it’s time to reach out and say thank to all of you who have been steadfastly in my corner, backing me up and helping me stay centered all of these 17 years incarcerated in the FBOP. I will be leaving prison in May and returning to my home state of Michigan, back to Detroit.
This time would not have been the same without you all — and I have met so many people who had no one to turn to while they did their time, so I know what a difference it made to always have my people holding me up. And there has been a lot to get through, what with advocating for my transition, at each step — I knew that I had legal advice, medical information and material support. Thank you so much, I owe you all more than I can ever repay.
I have tried for my own part to be a support and comfort to the people around me in each place the BOP put me, passing on the love I have been shown.
What I really want you all to know is how incredibly proud it made me to be part of a community of resistance that stood together. It impressed the people I met in prison for so much love and solidarity to be expressed so powerfully for someone who was behind the walls.
It demonstrated that in our movement, though we were physically separated, we could stay together in spirit, that solidarity and love are action words, and that we are all in it for the long haul.
Change does not come easy, but solidarity is when we flex our strength as a people. I don’t really know what comes next, but I hope I can still serve my community in some way to help. I have been studying to be a writing tutor through my Yale Prison Education Initiative scholarship — and hope to volunteer at the Literacy Project in Detroit. I have earned a Paralegal Degree and studied immigration law, and hope to be of service in that capacity, also.
So much to do, but many hands make the work easy! Thank you, thank you, a million times over — thank you! As Elton John used to sing — I’m Still Standin’ (yeah, yeah, yeah).
See you on the outside!
Love and Solidarity, Marius
Hybachi Is Free! Free Them All!
Hybachi LeMar is being released this week!! Let’s raise some funds to help smooth his transition back home. Hybachi will need a new phone right away, and funds to cover basic necessities as well as to support him as he gets back on his feet after nearly three years in prison.
Hybachi LeMar is a community organizer with the Black Autonomy Federation and author of many zines and books including “The Ghetto-bred Anarchist”, “The Anarchybalion”, and “The Deprived and Depraved”. Since his arrest in May 2023, Hybachi has been held in Illinois and Pennsylvania state prisons; from behind bars he has continued to publish writings that can be found on his website HelpACompa.com.
New Book by Anarchist and Anti-Imperialist Political Prisoner Casey Goonan: Lines in the Sand
Sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for actions taken in the larger struggle for the liberation of Palestine, to mark Palestinian Prisoners Day, Casey has shared a collection of their writings from the year they were imprisoned at Santa Rita Jail awaiting trial. Our prisoners have so much to contribute. Start a book club! Print & share! Send them your thoughts! We leave no one behind
To commemorate Palestinian Prisoners’ Day—April 17, 2026—we are sharing Lines in the Sand: Writings on the Gaza Solidarity Encampment & Campus Flood at U.C. Berkeley from an Anarchist Prisoner of War, a collection of writing Casey Goonan produced while imprisoned at Santa Rita Jail awaiting trial for actions carried out in solidarity with the Palestinian people enduring and resisting genocide in Gaza.
As a comrade in many movements—from street uprisings for Black liberation, mass prisoner struggles, and anti-imperialist solidarity in the belly of the beast—Casey’s works (whether in their own name as a guerrilla intellectual or anonymously in uncountable movement contributions) have never been bound by barbed-wire barriers or ephemeral abstractions, always seeking to help us to determine what’s possible here and now, especially through their immense efforts in the zine-to-prisoner distro True Leap Press.
Casey’s intellectual curiosity is limitless, and, while what’s collected here is far from the entirety of what Casey wrote while at Santa Rita, these are the interventions that Casey drafted, edited, edited again, and sent outside to us in a stack of manila envelopes for us to share widely with those who need them. Writing is a task that never ceases for Casey—they are always reading, reflecting, and sitting down with a pen in hand to poetically untangle not just their context of captivity but the wider stakes of global anti-imperialist struggle.
Casey, in their words and in their action, has always sought to intervene directly into the only fight worth intervening in—the struggle for a better world, without walls or cages. Their writings collected here—tactical and strategic assessments of possibilities for action, precise analysis of the (material and discursive) political economy of U.S./Zionist settler-colonialism, imperialism, and genocide, as well as personal reflections on the stakes of taking the leap into action—are an invitation for each of us to continue to rigorously interrogate our own sites and scenes of struggle, to hold open concealed possibilities, to break down the walls that divide us from the “we” we could become, and to take the true leap into action.
This book is the result of inside/outside collaboration from a few comrades to the end, lovingly transcribed from hand-written letters, and presented to you as a revolutionary gift and intervention in the struggle for Palestinian liberation and abolition of the colonial-imperialist prison world. Casey’s wish to release their writing to the world on Palestinian Prisoners’ Day is also a desire to shrink the fabricated distances between our global struggles, which we share with Casey as a serious project for any emancipatory struggle, especially since imprisonment as an institution spreads across the prison world, the prison sky.
It is Casey’s hope that you will read, print, and share this book, reflect on it with those with whom you’re in struggle, and ultimately enter into a broader conversation about what transpired across university campuses in 2024 in solidarity with Gaza as well as what is possible / necessary to do here and now. As a free-to-download, anti-copyright body of work, this collection is an invitation to expand our material and collective support for Casey and other comrades behind bars and to also shrink the fabricated distances between “inside” and “outside”—our comrades inside have much to contribute. Each chapter of this book is also available as a zine for ease of reading and distribution.
For more information on how to write to Casey or to put money on their books, visit: freecaseynow.noblogs.org.
After over a week without any answers, we were finally able to locate our dear friend Malik. We got no information from ODOC, BOP, or any other DOC—the only reason we were able to find them is because they were able to send a letter. They still haven’t gotten an attorney call.
Malik is currently being held in South Carolina. ODOC chose to send them as far as they could away from their lawyer and support base, to another state carceral system on the complete other side of the country. This is a blatant attempt to isolate Malik and break down their support system. Moving an inmate from one state system to another like this is highly unusual and represents an alarming escalation.
In the short time they’ve been in South Carolina, Malik has been horrifically mistreated, with SCDC cutting off their hair and forcing them into an overcrowded cell where they have to sleep on the ground. They are currently being held at the Kirkland Reception and Evaluation Center (a holdover facility) and they have no idea how long they will be there before they are transferred elsewhere. Some inmates have been kept there for months and months with extremely limited access to basic things like showers and comms. Holdover life is in many ways as bad or worse than solitary, since inmates have no property, no programming, and few chances to leave their cells. We know from Casey Goonan’s account of their recent prolonged holdover time at Mendota what a toll this time can take. We don’t know how long Malik will be at their current location, but we hope it won’t be long.
The recent escalation in Malik’s treatment comes as the state has dramatically increased repression of antifascists. It’s only been a couple of weeks since the verdict in the first Prairieland court case showed that the state will use torture, intimidation, and blatant lies to get its way when it comes to repressing antifascism and advancing its “Antifa Scare” agenda. Malik’s removal to SC is yet another example of the state targeting them for their identity and their antifascist politics.
We Will Free Us chronicled the sudden disappearance of Malik, who had previously been fighting to get out of solitary confinement, where they’ve been confined for the majority of the last two years
For over a week, Malik Muhammad effectively vanished inside the prison system. No answers. No confirmation. Just a string of contradictions from the Oregon Department of Corrections and affiliated facilities, claims that they were “at court,” moved to a “confidential location,” or simply no longer there. In the end, the state didn’t reveal where Malik was. Malik had to.
According to their support committee, Malik was only located after they were able to send a letter. They are now being held nearly 3,000 miles away at the Kirkland Reception and Evaluation Center, an intake facility inside South Carolina’s prison system. The transfer is extraordinary. Moving someone from one state prison system to another across the country is rare. Doing so while refusing to disclose their location, and cutting them off from legal counsel and community support, signals something else entirely: escalation. Malik has not yet been able to make a call to their attorney.
Since arriving in South Carolina, they’ve been thrown into what’s known as “holdover,” a kind of carceral limbo where people are warehoused without stability, programming, or basic dignity. Malik reports being placed in an overcrowded cell, forced to sleep on the ground, and subjected to intake procedures including having their locs cut off.
“Some inmates have been kept there for months and months with extremely limited access to basic things like showers and comms. Holdover life is in many ways as bad or worse than solitary, since inmates have no property, no programming, and few chances to leave their cells. We know from Casey Goonan’s account of their recent prolonged holdover time at Mendoza what a toll this time can take. We don’t know how long Malik will be at their current location, but we hope it won’t be long.”
Holdover units are notoriously brutal. People can remain there for weeks or months with minimal access to showers, communication, or time outside their cells. In many ways, it mirrors, or even exceeds, the psychological strain of solitary confinement. And right now, Malik is almost completely cut off. They are limited to just two envelopes a month. No regular phone access. No confirmed contact with their attorney.
This didn’t happen in a vacuum. The escalation comes amid a broader crackdown on antifascist organizing, advancing its “Antifa Scare” agenda. One that has already played out in recent federal prosecutions tied to protests, where the state has relied on sweeping narratives, intimidation, and severe sentencing to secure convictions. Malik’s transfer fits that pattern. Remove them. Isolate them. Disrupt their support. Increase pressure. What happened over the past week wasn’t just bureaucratic confusion. It was opacity with consequences. For days, a person in state custody was functionally untraceable, while agencies deflected and withheld information. Now we know where Malik is. The question is why it took this long, and what comes next.
Since Malik must now start over again, hundreds of miles away from family, friends, and comrades, and is forced to pay for everything from transporting their personal belongings as well as all sorts of bureaucratic tests and procedures, consider hosting a fundraiser or benefit show. While an official fundraiser hasn’t been launched yet, you can reach out with a secure email to freemaliknow @ proton . me to send funds.
Malik is also a prolific writer. Their poetry, political interventions, and analysis are available in zine form from with whatever weapons distro to print and share:
(Note: Malik only gets two envelopes a month and has no other access to comms at the moment, but you can still write to them to express your support.)
Malik F Muhammed #400523 Kirkland Reception and Evaluation Center A1-50 4344 Broad River Road Columbia, SC 29210
REBELLIONS
Grant County Detention Center, NM
Facing increasingly poor food quality and harsh conditions, those imprisoned at Grant County rebelled: as grievances were ignored, hunger strikes in early April led to increased tensions culminating in multiple pods coordinating action flooding the ranges, refusing trays and refusing to cuff up. Special response teams raided the units, cutting the lights and deploying a “light and sound shield” to force people to lock down.
One person involved in the strikes spoke to the SC Daily News [1]:
Morales described “holding trays hostage” as a protest action to prevent the kitchen from continuing to serve. “They had told me that this is how you get stuff done,” he said. “And then everyone around and surrounding pods kind of fed off the energy, and we all got ready to … pretty much just get attention.” From the point of view of Morales and his fellow inmates, they had filed grievances the previous Wednesday, and the food was still bad on Monday after two-and-a-half days of hunger strike.
According to Andazola and Bonenfante, the trays were scattered on the floor underneath tables where the M4 inmates usually ate. They issued orders to stack the trays for removal, which were refused. One inmate reportedly said they wouldn’t surrender the trays, while another challenged the officers to come get the trays and “see what happens.”
The refusal of directives and the verbal threat triggered security protocol, under which staff could no longer casually enter the pod and collect the trays, according to Andazola. Administrators called in a special response team, led by Lt. Ganader, consisting of officers who have had extra tactical training for tense situations, including special equipment, crisis intervention, suicide prevention, de-escalation and use-of-force, including legal aspects.
The response team directed the M4 inmates to present themselves to be handcuffed at the food port — a slot in the door through which food trays were passed. Andazola said that two of the six inmates complied, while the other four refused. The first Morales noticed of the action from the M6 pod across the hall was officers taping a plastic sheet over the window of M4, so they would not be able to see out and others could not see in. After that, Morales said, the trustees of M3 were evacuated. “That was pretty much a telltale that the special response team was going to go in through the conjoining door and get [M4] by surprise,” Morales said. Morales saw the lights go out in M4 and the response team go in. He said they were masked and armed with what he understood to be blank rounds, and that he saw flashing from inside M4 as though from a laser.
“We utilized a light and sound shield upon entry to disorientate for our safety,” Bonenfante explained to the Daily Press. “That way, they didn’t try to attack anybody when we’re going in. It’s a show-of-force, not a use-of-force.” “It looks like a Captain America shield and makes a sound like a high-pitched car alarm,” Andazola elaborated. Andazola also clarified that jail staff had shut off the lights in the main room of M4, but left the bathroom light on. They did not cut off power to any pod, he added.
M4 inmates got on the ground as ordered, and were cuffed and escorted out. The action triggered an automatic medical check, after which they were returned to their pods. The meal trays were reclaimed in the meantime.
While this was occurring, Morales and other inmates were pouring water unrelentingly from mop buckets into the hallway in tandem with inmates of M2. He recounted that corrections officers tried to soak it up with a blanket, but the inmates continued to fill and pour out mop buckets. Morales said this was to get the attention of senior staff, who he said continued to ignore the attempts of pods M2 and M6 as they assisted in the raid on M4.
“M2 and M6 flooded the pods to try and make us slip and fall,” Andazola said. Eventually the water was cut off long enough for staff to clean it up, which Morales said took a couple of hours, and Bonenfante said was an hour at most, and probably less. “We got a squeegee,” Bonenfante said. “It’s not my first time. Inmates in Doña Ana County, which is where I worked before, they used to flood the top tier all the time. So we got pretty good at cleaning water up pretty quick.”
After the water was cleaned up, Morales said he was called over to the guard station and asked to cuff up. After initially refusing, he said Lt. Ganader told him he would “get sprayed” if he didn’t comply. According to Morales’ mother, April Guerra, he had been sprayed with Mace after a previous incident in which he and an inmate with mental health issues were separated. Morales said he allowed himself to be cuffed after being threatened with Mace.
“In order to get myself heard and the other inmates heard, we had to do what we had to do,” Morales told the Daily Press he had told Bonenfante. “All day, before our stand took place, we were trying to get their attention to come back here.”
Moshannon Valley Pennsylvania
A hunger strike broke out amongst hundreds detained at the Moshannon Valley ICE processing center after multiple people fell sick due to systemic medical neglect, deteriorating conditions and unhealthy food [2]. Frontline Digity is calling for people to call the Clearfield County Commissioners in support of the strikers and to shut down the ICE processing facility [3]:
BREAKING NEWS: People detained at Moshannon Valley Processing Center have begun a hunger strike.
Reports from inside the facility describe a recent medical emergency where a man lost consciousness and did not receive proper care, along with ongoing concerns about illness, food quality, and access to basic necessities. Nearly 100 people are now participating in a hunger strike to protest these conditions.
A hunger strike is not a small action. It is what people do when they feel they have no other way to be seen, heard, or treated as fully human.
As our Executive Director, Jaime Martinez, shared:
“A hunger strike is a sign that something is fundamentally wrong. No one should have to withhold food to be seen, heard, or treated as fully human. We have an urgent moral obligation to respond to what our neighbors are enduring every day.
When a hunger strike becomes necessary in the eyes of our neighbors, the failure is not individual—it is structural, sustained, and morally indefensible. We cannot normalize it. We cannot look away. We cannot wait.
At Frontline DIGNITY, we name this plainly: this is an emergency of conscience. The conditions that produce this level of desperation must be confronted immediately—not deferred, diluted, or buried in process. Every day of delay deepens harm.
We are calling for immediate action from the Clearfield County Commissioners: shut down the Moshannon Valley Detention Center and initiate a full, independent investigation into its conditions, oversight, and impacts. Anything less is a refusal to confront what is already in plain view.”
This is happening here.
Call the Clearfield County Commissioners: 📞 (814) 765-2641
You can say: “I’m calling to demand the shutdown of Moshannon Valley Processing Center and a full investigation into the conditions inside.”
Demand accountability. Share this. Stay informed. Support the work so we can continue showing up for our neighbors.
Bedford Hills
Anger mounts at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility with three deaths in just one month prompted by deplorable conditions and policies put into place by Deputy Superintendent of Security Michael Blot. A joint letter by dozens of legal groups and inside-outside community organizations condemn the unlawful and discriminatory policies that endanger the safety and well being of transgender, gender non-conforming, non-binary, and intersex people [4]; a petition is being circulated calling for Michael Blot to be removed [5]; and last week dozens marched and rallied at the front gates of Bedford Hills CF [6].
Urgent Phone Blast: Xinachtli Transferred to Estelle Unit
In early April, Xinachtli was transferred from Carole Young Unit to Estelle Unit in Huntsville, Texas. Since his move, his conditions have worsened due to severe medical neglect and repression. We are calling for support to apply pressure on his new unit to ensure he has access to the care he needs.
Even though Xinachtli cannot walk, he has been denied access to a walker or wheelchair and forced to crawl around his cell. He has also been denied recreation time, physical therapy, medication, and his personal property from McConnell or Carole Young. Call or email Estelle Unit––we are watching and we won’t stop until Xinachtli’s demands are met!
Call Estelle Unit to demand that Xinachtli receive a wheelchair or walker and his personal property.
Estelle Unit: (936) 291-4200
CALL TO ACTION
Stop the Repression against Kevin “Rashid” Johnson
In October 2024, I initially broke the story about the guys that set themselves on fire at Red Onion. Y’all are aware of the media backlash that came behind that. Chadwick Dotson went into the media lying saying it never happened. Also Warden Anderson denied it ever happened. But later, when Phil Wilayto with the Virginia Defenders contacted the prison to investigate, it was exposed that they lied. The Virginia Mercury got a hold of actual email exchanges between the assistant warden, an investigator, and a major from the time the burnings were happening. Those emails stated specifically that three guys had just set themselves on fire, and staff were recorded discussing trying to get them to stop. Legislators in the New York Times acknowledged that guys had self-immolated and wanted to know why.
That was absolutely major. Journalists got in contact with me, got on my JPay, and I was contradicting everything they were trying to say in the press, exposing that the abuses continued. So they transferred me to South Carolina in the midst of all of that.
As soon as I got here, they put me into solitary confinement. Well, first they subjected me to extreme restraints. When I got here at the airport, they restrained me almost in a fetal position. Black box, chains, handcuffs, shackles, a chain connected the handcuffs to the shackles, which had me squat down, almost in a fetal position, so semi hog-tied position. I couldn’t stand up. They put me in a van that had the factory seat belts removed — steel lined van with no padding, no nothing. I couldn’t put my feet on the floor because of the way they had me restrained. So they lifted me up, put me in the van on the seat, and they drove at high speeds, the caravan they were driving with lights flashing, sirens blaring, like they was in a high speed car chase. Driving at high speed, braking hard, taking turns at high speed, accelerating hard.
I was bounced all around the inside the van, restrained so that I couldn’t brace myself, I couldn’t protect myself. I was slammed all around. I ended up with a shoulder injury and injury to my leg, and the pain in my leg was so severe, I initially thought it was broken. First, they sent me to the receiving center, which is Kirkland Correctional Institution. When I got there, they threw me in solitary for nothing. Threw me in a cell with no property, with a smock on — a nylon smock — no sheets, no blanket, nothing but a mattress that smelled like feces with a shower inside the cell. They threw me in solitary confinement. I refused to eat. I told them I wanted an attorney call.
So the next morning, they transferred me to Perry.
They threw me in solitary here. I stayed on the hunger strike. Per protocol of being on a hunger strike, the warden pulled me out two days after I got here. He asked me why I was on a hunger strike. I told him because they got me in solitary for no reason. I was in general population where I just came from in Virginia. He was like, well, we just want to see how you will act. Shit, I could barely walk with my leg damaged from being slammed around in the van. They X-rayed my leg initially when I was at Kirkland after transport. But they couldn’t determine if it was broken and they refused to send me to hospital. They didn’t give me treatment. So they made me hobble to the cell. But when I got here, solitary.
After I was confronted by Warden, the regional director, named Willie Davis pulled me out of the cell, said the same thing while I was on hunger strike. He said they will honor me remaining in the single cell, put me in general population after they saw how I acted, but they didn’t have any grounds releasing me because I stayed on hunger strike. Basically trying to get me to come off the hunger strike. I stayed on hunger strike like two weeks. Finally, they said, because people called complaining to headquarters about my condition, my treatment, they released me. Told me, if I ate, they would release me to population. They released me. I think it was May 1st when I started the strike, two weeks, I did get released. I forget the exact date.
I didn’t stay in population. They let me out. I wrote the article about my transfer treatment, the inhumane conditions in their lock up, in solitary confinement, about the treatment. The way they transferred me, what they call a rough ride in a Freddie Gray van. The article got published on the 15th of May.
On the 20th of May, they fabricated a disciplinary charge against me so they could put me in solitary. As soon as I got in solitary, five minutes after they took me to lock up, a guy came to my cell named Jamie Fergeli. He said he was a special agent from the inspector general’s office. He said he drove an hour from headquarters to give me a message. He said, I better tell the media and tell my people — he said, tell your motherfucking people — to stop contacting headquarters about you and what’s going on. Stop writing more articles about SCDC, or we will cut off all your communication.
I said, you tell ’em. I said, I’m not telling them shit. I have people talking to them behind the door. So he said, well, you heard what I said. You tell your people and the media, stop contacting headquarters. I drove an hour to give you a message from headquarters. I said, man, you tell them. He said, okay, I’m gonna cut all your communication line. He threatened that I was gonna get hurt and I was gonna stay in lockup.
This was on the 20th — two days later, after he made these threats, they moved me to C building, C-wing, which is a non-communication wing, with six cells in it. Signs on the door said the occupant cannot have a phone nor a tablet. No communication. And I was banned from using the phone and banned from having a tablet. They put me on phone and tablet restriction. I was banned from using the phone I’m paying for, banned from having a tablet. Ever since, I’m denied every privilege other SCDC prisoners got. They have GTL tablets where they can send messages, they can watch movies, they can listen to music. Ever since the 22nd of May, after Fergeli came to me specifically threatening to do that in response to me writing that article, and journalists and folks contacted headquarters about my transfer and conditions, they took all my privileges. I stayed back there for almost two months.
When they moved me to C building, they put me in a cell that had, spread all around the sink, around the window, this white powder. I wouldn’t find out for some months later that that was a neurotoxic insecticide. I didn’t know what it was. I thought it was like powder that a prisoner had sprinkled around there trying to keep bugs out or whatever. So I didn’t know. Actually can’t clean it with water — if you put water on it, it sticks.
It was all around the base of the cell, all around the walls, around the toilet, on top of the sink, around the sink, inside the sink, around the window. It was like a white sticky powder. And if you put water on it, it sticks. Does not dissolve. It’s supposed to use outside. I got a prisoner who works grounds to give me the label off one of the cans. You can look it up. It’s called Bengal, B-E-N-G-A-L, 2X, and it’s a fire ant insecticide. It’s highly toxic. It can penetrate the skin — you supposed to wash it off, or if it gets in your clothes, dispose of them. The label tells you it’s highly toxic, carcinogenic. All face up. Y’all looked it up the time that I first told y’all about it.
So they had sprayed it all over. See, I got sick. As soon as I moved to that cell, I got sick with respiratory infection. They had to put me on antibiotics. They put me on some type of medication for my respiratory, my lungs. I sounded like I had water in my lungs. Rattling was so bad. I had so much phlegm in my lungs. But that’s what it came from. I knew something in that cell was making me sick. I thought it was something coming out of the vent. I was sick the whole time I was in the cell.
On July the 3rd, I developed an abscess in my tooth, which was part of my immune system getting worn down. I got sick really sick. And you know, I never get sick. So I knew something was attacking my immune system. So I ended up with infection in my mouth, which was how I got the abscess. They didn’t treat the abscess. The dentist wouldn’t give me any treatment, so I ended up having to pay for outside dental treatment. A human abscess is potentially fatal, if it goes untreated. So they ended up letting me out of the hole, and I went on a hunger strike while I was in there with this insecticide everywhere. So it really compromised my immune system. I lost a lot of weight. I was put on antibiotics because of how sick I got.
I think I went and got seen on sick call probably within three days of me being put in that cell, and they had to put me on medication for my lungs, to try to clear up the congestion in my lungs. So I stayed on antibiotics almost the whole time I was in the cell and I was constantly sick. They released me to general population, put me back in the single cell initially. Then they came back and told me that my single cell status was being revoked. And the warden asked me if they put somebody in the cell with me, would I let somebody be moved in the cell? I said no.
So they locked me back up again, put me back in the exact same cell, with that insecticide all over it again. I got sick again. As soon as I got in that cell, soon as they moved me back inside, immediately I got sick. As soon as I was released, all the chest congestion, all the sickness, all that shit cleared up. Soon as they locked me right back up, put me in the same cell, I got sick all over again.
I went on a hunger strike when they put me back in that cell. They told me it was up to me, if I was willing to go to a cell with somebody, they would release me back to population. So I went back to population.
When I got back out here, they started pushing all type of shit. Kept deadlocking me. Denied me my property since I’ve been here. Wouldn’t give me any of my legal property, my personal property. They were ordered by a judge on July 21st — the Wise County Circuit Court ordered them to give me all my property so that I can meet a hearing deadline. The Attorney General’s office bucked the court’s order. They never gave me my property.
So not 30 days after the judge issued that order for them to give me my property, they created a policy here that limited prisoners to three boxes of legal property. So that policy obviously was created in response to the judge ordering them to give me all my property. They didn’t want me to have my property, so I haven’t had my property.
They kept me on phone restriction, tablet restriction. They took me off phone restriction probably after I got out the second time, which was around October, but I can only make one phone call a day. All of this has been directed at preventing me from communicating, preventing me from publicizing abusive conditions.
I also wrote an article about Tyrone Perry being denied medical treatment because he has a cardiac condition and he has small vessel brain disease. And when I wrote that article about him, three days after that article went out, they transferred me to McCormick, they sent me to McCormick Correctional Institution.
I got to McCormick. I was taken into an office with the warden, assistant warden, major, some CERT team officers, regular officers, and a bunch of other big guys. Talking, yeah, we’ve been reading about you online. You like to stir up trouble. You like to cause problems. The assistant warden, a Black dude, was trying to decide, do I want to put you in general population? He said, well, you at a new institution, you don’t want to start here.
I said, no, you’re the one with all these people standing around like you’re trying to intimidate me. You know I’m one man, how am I scaring you? We talking, well, well, we not gonna get physical. I said, what are y’all in here standing around me for then? Minister, like, yo, yo. Y’all got some movie mind. What’s up? So he said, well, you like to cause problems, we don’t want you here. I said, why you got me here? So he said, I’m done with you, I’m done. They released me to population and put me in a cell with feces and blood splattered all over the wall, stuck all on the floor.
So I ended up scrubbing the cell all night. So they called me down to property. They said I was, they called me to go get my personal property. When I got down to personal property, they took me, chained me up, put me on the van, brought me right back to Perry.
But the transfer was basically retaliation for the article I wrote. I was talking about the nurse that was here who were denying Tyrone medical treatment. He went to medical with pretty much stroke-level high blood pressure, and the nurse practitioner wouldn’t give him treatment. So when I wrote the article, as soon as the article went out, soon as it got published, they transferred me to McCormick, put me in a nasty cell. I guess it was an intimidation game. Then they sent me back. The next day, brought me right back, right back.
Like I said, I haven’t had my property. They won’t give me a tablet, not allowed to communicate, and even trying to frustrate my every means of communication. They try to make sure anybody who tries to help me communicate, they retaliate against them. So that’s the basic outline of what’s been going on.
UPROAR has organized a campaign targeting South Carolina DOC for censorship of SF Bay View and Socialist Viewpoint newspapers [2]
South Carolina prison officials appear to be blocking the San Francisco Bay View, a Black newspaper with explicit anti-racist political content, from reaching about 25 subscribers at Perry Correctional Institution. Kevin “Rashid” Johnson also reports retaliation after he challenged the denial of Socialist Viewpoint. This campaign demands an end to racialized and political censorship, retaliation, and communication suppression.
The immediate issue is not one lost newspaper. It is a reported pattern of non-delivery affecting approximately 25 Perry subscribers to the San Francisco Bay View. Mary Ratcliff, the paper’s publisher, reports that the paper was mailed to those subscribers. Rashid reports that the December 2025, January/February 2026, and March 2026 issues never reached them. He also reports that these publications were not routed through the normal review-and-notice process that SCDC policy requires for allegedly questionable publications.
Under SCDC Policy PS-10.08, questionable publications are supposed to go through the Correspondence Review Committee process. If a publication is rejected, the prisoner is supposed to receive notice. If a publication is disapproved, the publisher is supposed to receive notice and an opportunity to appeal. According to Rashid and Mary Ratcliff, that process does not appear to have happened here.
Rashid further reports that contraband investigators have been present in the mailroom on a daily basis under the stated rationale of drug screening, and that this apparatus has in practice been used to interfere with political publications rather than simply screen mail for contraband. In his view, the Bay View is being targeted because it is a Black national newspaper with explicit anti-racist political content, not because of any legitimate security concern.
In the absence of delivery, inmate rejection notice, CRC notice, or publisher notice, the available facts support a strong inference that these newspapers were withheld, diverted, or destroyed outside the review-and-notice process required by PS-10.08.
This matters not only because newspapers are being withheld, but because the San Francisco Bay View functions as a collective political communications channel for incarcerated readers. Mary Ratcliff has emphasized that access to this kind of publication helps prisoners understand they are not isolated, connect their experiences to broader struggles, and challenge abuse more effectively. The suppression of the paper therefore affects not just individual subscribers, but a whole layer of communication, political education, and collective awareness inside Perry.
This complaint is also tied to a broader South Carolina retaliation pattern Rashid has publicly described in writings on solitary confinement, communication suppression, medical neglect, dental abuse, chemical exposure, and retaliation for exposing prison abuse.
A second phone zap organized after the retaliatory communication blackout and chemical/biological warfare:
Retaliatory transfer and threat structure:
After Rashid exposed Red Onion self-immolations and contradicted official denials, Virginia transferred him to South Carolina in the middle of that backlash.
He describes violent transport under extreme restraints, solitary confinement on arrival, and continuing punishment tied to his writing and outside communication.
He states that on May 20, after publishing about his treatment, a disciplinary charge was fabricated to return him to lockup.
He further reports that Jamie Fergeli, identified as a special agent from the inspector general’s office, threatened him to make “the media” and “my people” stop contacting headquarters and to stop writing more articles about SCDC, or his communication would be cut off and he would be harmed.
Six-cell no-communication unit and Bengal 2X exposure:
Two days after that threat, Rashid reports he was moved to a six-cell no-communication unit in C-building where signs stated that occupants could not have a phone or tablet.
He reports being placed in a cell coated with a white sticky powder spread around the sink, window, toilet, walls, and floor.
He later identified that substance as Bengal 2X fire-ant insecticide, a highly toxic chemical not meant to be used as an indoor coating on a prisoner’s cell.
He says he became seriously ill almost immediately, developed a respiratory infection, was put on antibiotics and lung medication, and later became sick again after being returned to the same contaminated cell.
Medical neglect, property deprivation, and censorship as one pattern:
UPROAR’s contemporaneous attorney updates and ActionNetwork letter campaigns from May to July 2025 describe upper lung infection, blocked calls and emails, weight loss, a later untreated dental abscess, false refusal paperwork, and continuing barriers to care.
Rashid also reports continuing deprivation of legal materials, personal property, communication, and basic tablet and phone privileges as part of an ongoing campaign of suppression.
UPROAR’s Perry censorship campaign places this inside a larger South Carolina pattern that also includes suppression of the San Francisco Bay View and retaliation after Rashid challenged the denial of Socialist Viewpoint.
This is why the Bengal 2X exposure cannot be treated as a standalone safety problem. It must be understood as part of a broader campaign to isolate, censor, punish, and silence a prisoner who exposed abuse and refused to shut up.
What we are demanding:
Independent investigation now: into the Bengal 2X exposure, retaliatory threats, communication suppression, and all related staff misconduct.
Evidence preservation now: camera footage, housing logs, pest-control logs, chemical records, grievance records, disciplinary records, communications records, and medical records.
Independent medical evaluation now: full respiratory evaluation, toxic-exposure review, and follow-up care for the dental abscess and any related untreated conditions.
End retaliation and censorship now: including retaliation for Rashid’s writing, publication, media contact, legal advocacy, and outside communication. Reinstate tablet access immediately.
Return all withheld property now: including legal materials and personal property being withheld and “played games with.”
Return Rashid to Virginia now: specifically to the Eastern or Central region, under conditions that protect him from retaliation, isolation, censorship, and further abuse.
Accountability: remove implicated staff from contact pending investigation, terminate staff found responsible, and pursue criminal referral where the facts support it.
Why this matters: Rashid’s case is not just about one unsafe cell. It is about a larger regime of retaliation: transfer, threats, censorship, communication bans and tablet restrictions, confiscation of property, medical neglect, and what UPROAR has described as chemical and biological warfare against a prisoner-journalist who exposed abuse. If prison officials can poison, isolate, censor, and medically neglect someone for telling the truth, they send a message to every prisoner: stay silent or suffer.
Hundreds of people have been arrested on federal and/or state charges during fierce demos outside the ICE federal building in Portland, most of whom have plead out on misdemeanors with unsupervised probation.
Trenten Barker is the first to be sentenced to federal prison from the protests. Previously, Julie Winters, who was re-arrested, imprisoned pre-trial in solitary for two months, was sentenced to three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to felony intimidation of a federal officer.
This past June, Trenten became the first person in Portland to be picked up from his house and charged with federal crimes for alleged protest activity at the ICE facility in the SW waterfront area. The federal government alleges that a lit flare that minorly damaged the building’s front gate constitutes “arson”. A federal judge sentenced him to 18 months in prison for that very flare, along with having to pay fines that total to $8,820. The judge openly admitted in court that Trenten was being used to make an example to others who dared protest at the ICE facility.
This sentence is utterly barbaric, and it comes in the midst of increased aggression against anti-fascists all across the amerikan settler colony who have risen up to fight back against ICE. All across amerika, the empire’s federal agents continue to violently enforce this settler colony’s fascist agenda. Masked police kill people in the streets. The amerikan government disappears our neighbors into concentration camps. And they do this with no end in sight. With impunity. People who express dissent and stand up to fight back for their neighbors are targeted, brutalized, and imprisoned. Trenten is no different. And it is on us to now take care of him in his time of need.
Trenten is being sent all the way to Lompoc because the Feds have designated him to be “too dangerous” to be at a camp in Oregon. This is yet another attempt by the fascist police state to attempt to isolate Trenten and remove him from his support system. We cannot allow that to happen. Solidarity is a verb, and we are all we have. Send Trenten love! Let him know that bravery comes with the reward of endless love and solidarity from your community.
Support Trenten
Hi, my name is Trenten Barker and I was recently sentenced to 18 months in prison after being arrested while protesting at the ICE facility. On top of being sentenced to 18 months, I was convicted of a non-expungable federal felony and ordered to pay a fine of $8,820, interest included, which will be added to my fine while I am locked up.
I’m asking y’all for support during this tough time to help me start to get through the extreme trouble that an impulsive bad decision got me in. I was told in court that they needed to set an example for anyone arrested at these protests in the future, and unfortunately the punishment was far more severe than me or my family anticipated.
I’m hoping to raise enough to pay off the fine before I have to self surrender on April 30th, and any excess money I raise will go towards financial support for my parents, who will be doing their best to keep me from falling further into debt while I am in custody.
Trenten will report to federal prison at the end of April 2026. You can begin to write to him then at the following address:
Trenten Barker #93764-511 FCI Lompoc II Federal Correctional Institution 3901 Klein Blvd Lompoc, CA 93436
Free Jakhi!
On April 8, Jakhi McCray pled guilty to one count of arson in front of a magistrate judge, surrounded by close comrades and loved ones.
His non-cooperating plea includes:
–– one count of third degree arson –– the right to appeal any sentencing above 63 months –– waiving the prosecution’s right to ask for terrorism enhancements –– up to $800,000 in restitution –– up to $1.6 million to the court
Jakhi’s support committee shared further reflections on his case and decisions:
This plea will very likely result in a sentencing minimum of 5 years in federal prison, and hopefully in a minimum security prison/camp due to his lack of bail violations and young age. His defense team will now be negotiating with the prosecution regarding sentencing deadline, restitution amount, self-surrendering, and other elements of the case.
All plea deals are inherently coercive: prosecutors use tools like mandatory minimums, stacked charges, terrorism enhancements, and pre-trial detention to incentivize people to take please, regardless of whethere or not they did what they’re being accused of. After failing to capture Jakhi for six weeks, failing to cage Jakhi in MDC pre-trial, pushing the indictment date for eight months, the Epstein Empire has coerced Jakhi into a plea with the looming threat of additional terrorism charges/enhancements and an increase in other charges/counts if indicted.
This threat would bring Jakhi’s prison time guidelines to a minimum of 15-25 years if convicted at trial, rather than the 3-4 year guidelines that he has now. Unfortunately, the charge he is pleading to comes with a minimum of five years in prison, regardless of the guidelines. Jakhi’s case isjust one of the 98% of federal criminal cases that end with a plea bargain. These repressive tactics are a foundational feature of the US criminal justice system––an apparatus of state power that seeks to manage poor and racialized people, and to protect capital and the ruling class.
Jakhi’s acceptance of a plea deal, or any person’s acceptance of a plea, does not mean they are conceding to what the state says is true, and it is certainly not an act of defeat. This decision was made out of love for his family, friends, and comrades, and for the revolutionary movements which he is a part of. Jakhi’s decision is a political calculation made under political conditions, by someone who has already shown enormous courage, to minimize the amount of time the federal government gets to take from him.
While facing at least half a decade of incarceration, Jakhi remains resilient, drawing strength from his principles and the love of those who support him. We must continue our efforts to free Jakhi throughout his decision, sentencing process, and eventual time in prison. We, the support committe of Jakhi McCray, remain unwavering in our belief in his righteousness, and in our commitment to his defense.
Prisoner support as we currently practice it––fundraising for commissary, letter writing, phone zaps––is incredibly important, but to honor our comrades’ sacrifices and losses is to continue to fight on the outside when they no longer can. To support Jakhi is also to continue struggling against the U.S. from wherever you are. Jakhi is not free until everyone is free. Free Jakhi, free them all, free the land!
The Palestine Solidarity Working Group also shared a beautiful example of multi-generational solidarity, with a gift from former Holy Land 5 political prisoner Shukri Abu Baker to Jakhi, pre-sentencing.
Further solidarity statements from the Palestine Solidarity Working group (@ palestineswg), Displaced Alliance 4 Pan-Afrikan Socialists, (@ daps4thaland), Writers Against the War on Gaza (@ wawag_now), as well as the NYC Anti-Repression Group (@ nycantirepressiongroup), detailing a longer history of NYC resistance and repression, are available to share.
The action for which Jakhi is being imprisoned was undertaken in solidarity with the LA uprising against ICE, retaliation against NYPD, and concrete solidarity with the struggle for Palestinian liberation. As the original communique claiming responsibility for action states, “repression breeds resistance!”
Multiple NYPD cars were set on fire in the early, early morning of Thursday June 12th. The cars were just waiting there, practically begging for a new makeover! Tips on replicating this can be found on most counterinfo sites or just common knowledge; this was way easy. And so fun. Apologies to the community for the smell and the noise. And fuck you and haha to that pig—yeah, you know who you are.
There are many reasons for doing this, but for the sake of time it can be boiled down to four: 1) Solidarity with the uprising happening in Los Angeles where community and rebels are fighting Amerikkkan pig forces. From one cop city to another, death to the pigs and the surveillance state. 2) Revenge for the NYPD’s continuous physical and sexual harassment/assault of protestors, particularly femmes (incidents include removing of hijabs, forced nudity, degrading remarks, and more). 3) Something to show that repression breeds resistance and 4) Demonstrating that solidarity with the Palestinian resistance, immigrants, Black people doesn’t mean pointless demos where everyone gets arrested, endless marches to nowhere, and vapid chants. Solidarity means ATTACK! ATTACK! ATTACK! ATTACK!
Sincerely, the anarchists and the rats and the brats and the lawless.
Jakhi recently shared reflections on repression, pretrial release, and the obligations of principled solidarity in an interview with Iansá Editor-in-Chief Maryam Azeeza Muhammad.
Jakhi’s prior message to the movement, a statement about their repression and solidarity, is available as a zine to print:
On the International Day of Political Prisoners, long-term political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal sent a message of support to Daniela Klette on Prison Radio, which was played at the solidarity rally in front of the women’s prison in Vechta, Lower Saxony on March 21, 2026.
The trial of Daniela Klette, an imprisoned alleged former RAF militant, has been underway since March 2025. She faces charges of attempted murder, illegal possession of weapons, and attempted and completed aggravated robbery in connection with 13 robberies. After more than 30 years underground, she was arrested in Berlin in February 2024. Last week, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office also filed charges against her, accusing her of participating in three actions attributed to the RAF between 1990 and 1993.
Hello, Daniela Klette,
I send you my greetings of solidarity.
We are dealing with a truly remarkable turn in the state’s policies. I call it “Back to the Past.” You’ve surely heard of the film “Back to the Future.” What’s happening here, however, is a “Back to the Past,” because the state is acting as if it were 1972 or 1980 again. It is obvious that this is now about the political persecution of a person because of their past connections and political actions, in which no one was personally harmed or injured. It is clear that this is a political trial.
So, Daniela Klette should be acquitted – let her finally go free!
Let’s finally return to the present. Okay? It’s no longer 1972. Not even 1982. It’s time to turn the page and embrace life in the new century. The capitalist system is now trying to punish people whose beliefs it rejected years ago and whom it couldn’t catch back then. Punishing them today for their beliefs is utterly absurd.
Freedom for Daniela Klette! Acquittal for Daniela Klette! Now!
Thank you very much. With love, not fear, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal speaking.
And in German:
Hallo Daniela Klette,
Ich sende Dir hiermit meine solidarischen Grüße.
Wir haben es mit einer wirklich bemerkenswerten Wendung in der Politik des Staates zu tun. Ich nenne das »Zurück in die Vergangenheit«. Ihr habt sicher von dem Film »Zurück in die Zukunft« gehört. Was hier läuft, ist jedoch ein »Zurück in die Vergangenheit«, denn der Staat agiert, als wäre es wieder 1972 oder 1980. Dabei ist offensichtlich, dass es jetzt um die politische Verfolgung einer Person aufgrund ihrer früheren Verbindungen und politischen Handlungen geht, bei denen niemand persönlich zu Schaden gekommen oder verletzt worden ist. Es ist klar, dass dies ein politischer Prozess ist.
Also Freispruch für Daniela Klette – lasst sie endlich frei!
Kehren wir nun endlich wieder in die Gegenwart zurück. Okay? Wir schreiben nicht mehr das Jahr 1972. Nicht einmal das Jahr 1982. Es ist an der Zeit, den Kalender umzublättern und das Leben im neuen Jahrhundert anzugehen. Das kapitalistische System versucht jetzt, Menschen zu bestrafen, deren Überzeugungen man vor Jahren abgelehnt hat und die man damals nicht zu fassen bekam. Sie heute für ihre Überzeugungen zu bestrafen ist völlig absurd.
Freiheit für Daniela Klette! Freispruch für Daniela Klette! Und zwar sofort!
Danke sehr. Mit Liebe, nicht mit Furcht, hier spricht Mumia Abu-Jamal.
“Mumia Week 26” takes place April 19-25 commemorating Mumia-Abu Jamal with a series of events throughout Philadelphia:
This events series will celebrate journalist, author, advocate, political prisoner, and ALC client Mumia Abu-Jamal’s mission and message. Honor the innocence robbed by the state & innocence to protect for the future, with a week of programs centered on the fight to free Mumia & the vital, internationalist, abolitionist, and community-affirming work happening in Philadelphia, PA every single day.
Free Them All Sunday Service + Community Dinner Sunday, Apr. 19 | 2:00 PM : Tabernacle United Church
Innocence & Abolition Arts N Crafts Night: Monday, Apr. 20 | 5:00 PM: 4157 W Girard Ave
We! Want! Freedom! Trivia Night Teach-In (21+ w/ valid ID): Thursday, Apr. 23 | 6:30 PM: Tattooed Mom 530 South St
“Mumia Lives!” Birthday Celebration & Film Screening: Friday, Apr. 24 | 6:30 PM: Friends Center 1501 Cherry St
#MumiaWeek’26: March of Innocence: Saturday, Apr. 25 | 4:00 PM: One Art Community Center
Learn more & register for the events: https://luma.com/mumiaweek
Write to Mumia:
Smart Communications/PA DOC Mumia Abu Jamal #AM8335 SCI Mahanoy Post Office Box 33028 St Petersburg, Florida 33733
Michael Kimble
Michael Kimble has been transferred to Fountain Correctional Center. From @freemichaelkimble:
On April 14, Michael Kimble was suddenly transferred to the so-called “honor camp” annex of Fountain Correctional center. Though nothing short of Michael’s freedom is acceptable, we’re cautiously relieved that he is now classified as “minimum-out” custody.
If you’re able, Michael is still accepting $ contributions so he can get the resources he needs at the new facility! You can donate here: https://bit.ly/michaelkimble
Letters sending your love and solidarity are also appreciated! Due to mail digitization, the address is still the same:
ALDOC Mail Processing Michael Kimble #138017 PO Box 17339 San Antonio, TX 78217
Thank you for your continued support of Michael. ‘til Michael & all prisoners are free! ❤️🔥❤️🔥
Larry Hoover
Renewed calls to free Larry Hoover from state prison as former prosecutors now join family and defense team in advocating for Illinoius Governor Pritzker to grant him clemency on his remaining state sentence. Dozens of people attempted an April 6 three-member prisoner review board hearing who heard from his supporters (as well as Cook County prosecutors who oppose his release) [1]. John Gleeson, a former New York mob prosecutor, federal judge and US Sentencing Commission board member, has now joined Hoover’s team and gave remarks to the review board. Former Cook County State’s Attorney Algis Baliunas who had once prosecuted Mr. Hoover has also recently published an op-ed in the New York Times regretting his involvement as a “tough on crime” prosecutor and in particular calling for Hoover’s release: “Mercy in Mr. Hoover’s case would not be an invitation to ignore or erase the past, but a recognition that justice evolves over time… For elderly prisoners like Larry Hoover, justice does not require more prison. It requires the courage for all of us to say enough.” [2]. Having done over 50 years behind bars, Larry Hoover has experienced three heart attacks since his transfer to Colorado State Prison last year on an interstate compact treaty; his lawyers describe the cruel pointlessness of his continued incarceration as “a slow, state-sanctioned death sentence.”
After the first non-cooperating Prairieland defendants were convicted in a political show trial bolstered by the entire weight of the repressive state, a call for international solidarity with the Prarieland Defendants for April 4 was answered all across the country, with noise demos, fundraisers, benefit shows, banner drops, letter writing nights, and other expressions of love, rage, and solidarity.
“From Texas to Korea to Palestine and Iran, we stand in solidarity with political prisoners in their struggle against repression, occupation, imperialism and state violence. Free the Prairieland Defendants. Free Iranian prisoners. Free the Palestinian prisoners and stop the death penalty law. Free them all! 투쟁!” (Speech by Ana at the 64th Rally by Urgent Action by S. Korean Civil Society in Solidarity with Palestine)
Portland, OR:
“Right now at this moment there are over 1.9 million people sitting in prison within the borders of this empire. Right now there are bombs and gun fire exchanged in the middle east and west asia by imperialist forces hell bent on killing every brown child they can find. Right now everything around you was made atop an ocean of blood of those whose this land was stolen from, every structure soaked with the blood of the enslaved. Right now your neighbors are being dragged out of their homes and put into concentration camps. Right now the earth is crying out in agony as she is decimated by a fascist death cult. A death cult hell bent on labeling us all terrorists and locking us away. Right now there are people who fought back sitting in cages, there are people who have been snitched on, people who have been abandoned. If we cannot take care of those sitting in prison who fought for freedom we cannot expect ourselves to meet the moment where we all, individually or collectively say no. Tonight is in honor and in solidarity with those who fought for freedom, so let me express my love for anarchists and rebels sitting in cages everywhere, especially those who were snitched on by cowards in Texas. I say it with my chest, freedom to all political prisoners, death to america, long live anarchy.”
Oakland, CA:
For the April 4th Day of Solidarity with Prarieland Defendants a fundraiser dinner, discussion, and letter writing event was hosted in so-called Oakland, California on occupied Ohlone land and approximately 100 folks attended. We served a delicious vegan meal to attendees + members of the East Bay Prisoner Support and National Lawyers Guild gave a slideshow presentation about the Prairieland case and trial (adapted from a presentation by the DFW Defense Committee) in addition to information on ongoing and changing tactics of state repression and the urgency of international solidarity in the face of growing global fascism. Useful information was shared about security culture + information on how to stay silent, know your rights, and get in touch with free legal resources if contacted by the FBI or other agents of the state.
We shared zines named in the case with attendees, and everyone was invited to “join the conspiracy” by reading or taking a zine home. There was also a linocut printmaking station and letter writing table with zines introducing each defendant’s interests and personal story to give people ideas for making meaningful connections. The event was a site of community building and political education, and raised over $1,000 cash that went to the defendants as well as an unknown amount sent via QR codes to the defense committee, Maricela’s daughter, and Des’ legal defense fundraiser.
Minneapolis, MN:
For the Twin Cities, on the April 4th day of solidarity with Prairieland defendants, there were three different events throughout the day, one in St. Paul, one in Minneapolis and one that was virtual. They were all at different times so it gave people options for when and how they could attend. Some people went to multiple events. I wasn’t able to attend the virtual event and haven’t heard back about how it went. The Minneapolis event happened at the Seward Cafe, a local punk/counter cultural cafe and, mutual aid hub and event space. The St. Paul event happened at the ZCC, which is a church, mutual aid hub and event space. Both were active and high functioning hubs within Metro Surge. Around 40 to 50 ish came to both events. There were less people than was hoped for that were outside our networks. Certainly some came, but one of our goals is to more effectively make the case for support to the defendants to the wide range of participants of the insurgency against Metro Surge here, for them to claim it as part of the movement here and it didn’t happen as much as hoped. It’s an ongoing effort, where we need to rethink how we’re communicating rather than reproduce the same forms and expect them to show up. In general, the events went really well. There was a lot of good conversation between groups who don’t normally share the same space, between people facing ICE related charges locally and people less familiar with the case in general. People took a tons of zines and were generally very engaged and excited to keep talking and organizing around the case and locally against repression.
As far as we know, events were also held in Humboldt, California; Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Gary, Indiana; Indianapolis, Indiana; Portland, Maine; Great Falls, Maryland; New York City, New York; Eugene, Oregon; Austin, Texas; Dallas, Texas; Denton, Texas; Fort Worth, Texas; Olympia, Washington; and many other cities.
If you have a report-back to share, send it our way!
A Fight in the Jury Room!
Movement media collective Unicorn Riot shared an incredible investigative report abobut potential juror misconduct––a fight during jury deliberation that had to be broken up by court mashalls!––in addition to the trial’s general atmosphere of state hostility and repression. It’s worth quoting at length:
On the day of the verdict, Friday, March 13, shortly after the jury returned from lunch, a “loud uproar” could be heard coming from the jury room at approximately 1:00 p.m., according to Amber Lowrey, the sister of Prairieland defendant Savanna Batten.
Lowrey was sitting on a bench with her mother, and numerous other people were milling around in a relatively quiet hall outside the trial courtroom. Lowrey said everyone in the vicinity could hear the ruckus, and while she couldn’t hear exactly what was being said, she did hear several people yelling. The loud uproar went on for about a minute and a half and was so noteworthy that she recalled commenting with others about it.
The uproar occurred about an hour before the jury reached its verdict, according to Lowrey. As she and her mother entered the courtroom for the reading, Lowrey said the room was “packed with police officers and US Marshals and the atmosphere was much more hostile than it had ever been before.”
Once the jury was seated, Lowrey noticed that two male jurors were visibly crying which, in retrospect, was notable when combined with the fight she heard earlier in the jury room.
And after the shock of the verdict that few expected, Lowrey and her mother walked to their car, completely forgetting about the incident that took place in the jury room earlier that afternoon. As she and her mother sat, stunned, someone who works in the legal profession approached their car.
The person, who chose not to reveal their identity for this story, told them there had been a fight in the jury room and one of the defense lawyers had to alert US Marshals to break up the fight. Lowrey said the person was visibly shaken and crying while conveying this information.
A few days later, Lowrey was contacted by Tamera Hutcherson, a paralegal who had worked on her sister’s case. Hutcherson confirmed that a fight had taken place in the jury room.
Coercion of jurors, whether by the court or by other jurors, is a serious issue and could constitute juror misconduct. Coerced verdicts violate a defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial, and can lead to mistrials, overturned convictions, new trials, or reversals on appeal.
Juror coercion need not be physical and can include pressure through intimidation, harassment, or verbal abuse to conform to the majority view, against a juror’s conscience or honest belief. If a juror is found guilty of intimidation, they can face fines and imprisonment.
On Friday, March 27, defense lawyers filed post-verdict motions for judgments of acquittal and a new trial.
In one of the motions for a new trial, Batten’s attorney Christopher Tolbert argued that juror misconduct and irregularities during jury deliberations compromised the integrity of the verdict and deprived Batten of a fair trial.
Tolbert commented on the “loud and sustained disturbance emanating from the area of the jury room” observed by several people on the day the verdict was reached.
“Based on information obtained after the verdict,” Tolbert stated that there is reason to believe “jurors engaged in a heated confrontation inside the jury room and that certain jurors may have been subjected to intimidation or coercion during deliberations.”
Tolbert argued that because there is credible evidence the jury’s deliberative process was disrupted by misconduct and possible coercion, and because such conduct “creates a reasonable probability that the verdict was affected, the Court should grant a new trial in the interest of justice.”
Prairieland Trials Continue
Dario is facing years in prison for the state’s claim that he removed people from a Signal group chat. The trial against Dario Sanchez was set to start on April 20 at Johnson County court in Cleburne, but was postponed until June 22nd.
From the DFW Support Committee:
Dario is a computer science teacher with 5 years of service. In the summer of 2024, he put his career on hold to take care of his partner who is injured and needs help caring for herself. He was arrested at a pre-dawn raid on their home with no struggle. In spite of this ordeal, he hopes to return to the classroom and share his love of technology with students for years to come. Days after being released on bond, another charge and bond conditions were added at a pre-trial hearing. This second, unexpected arrest is where Dario witnessed the horrific abuse of another prisoner. Weeks after being released on bond, prosecutors had Dario arrested a third time, at gunpoint, after alleging he searched for information on explosive devices, when in reality his bond officer had made those searches. All of this has been a massive financial drain on him and his partner, with fees attached to each of his bond conditions.
The Support Committee is calling for supporters who can come to Cleburne to help out taking notes during the trial, show solidarity outside the courthouse, or help with logistics like cooking. Trial begins June 22nd, 9AM at Guinn Justice Center, 204 S N Buffalo, St. Cleburne, TX 76033.
Free Des!
Des’ Support Committee is seeking folks who know and love Des, and/or have personal experience with him making a difference in their life, to write a character letter for his upcoming sentencing hearing in court.
Deadline: May 8, 2026
Email letters to: freedes@riseup.net
From Free Des:
Character letters, support letters, or sentencing letters are NOT letters to Des; they’re letters about him.
Speak to your own experiences with Des, whether as a friend, or someone, say, who got a tattoo from him or met him on a road trip.
Describe Des’s caring and big-hearted qualities, who he is and why he matters so much to you and your community, and the positive impacts he’s had on you.
You must include your legal name along with an address.
These letters are important! Positive letters can lead to a shorter sentence.
The Government Doesn’t Want You to Read These Zines
One fundraising idea that local groups have been dreaming up is selling zine packages of all of the zines that were used against the defendants to raise money to the support fund. Detritus Books is one of the groups undertaking a project of this kind.
From the photos supplied to media by the feds, we can see that some of the zines included are
Solidarity with the Prisoners of the Ampelokipi Case
On October 31, 2024 anarchist comrade Kyriakos X. was killed by a bomb explosion while handling it in an apartment in Athens. The explosion seriously injured anarchist comrade Marianna M., who, along with other anarchist comrades, faces prosecution under charges of forming and participating in a terrorist organization. On November 18, comrade Nikos Romanos was also arrested in connection with the same events. Nikos Romanos held his friend and comrade Alexis Grigoropoulos in his arms as he took his final breath on December 6, 2008, assassinated by the bullet of a special state officer, launching intense wave of an insurrectionary popular uprising. In the years that followed, the Greek anti-terrorist agency repeatedly targeted Nikos and other anarchists, imprisoning them with fabricated evidence in an effort to suppress the blooming anti-authoritarian social movements. Nikos Romanos spent years as a political prisoner, held hostage by the state, before being released in recent years.
In the midst of revelations of all kinds of government scandals and the participation of the Greek state in the war unleashed by the US and Israel against Iran, the repressive mechanism decided to deal with the “internal enemy”. Three weeks before the first hearing, we were notified of the start of our trial. On April 1 and one month before the end of the 18-month period, the process begins. A process based on an obviously inflated indictment where it is obvious that four of the five defendants have nothing to do with or knew about what was going to happen on 31/10. The court’s focus, however, is not exclusively to highlight the otherwise well-used tactics of the anti-terrorist unit, but to defend the memory of the revolutionary Kyriakos Xymitiris and the armed means of resistance he decided to adopt against this cannibalistic system.
From the very beginning, the prosecuting authorities with the counter-terrorism at the helm saw this specific case as an ideal event to open yet another fan of persecutions and imprisonments of people. The apparent inability of the anti-terrorism police to establish even a pretextually credible indictment held us all hostage, with requests to terminate the temporary detention being rejected in all the interim judicial councils (six months and twelve months) with flimsy justifications. The case was thus kept open, in the absence of any new evidence to justify it, with the councils’ dismissive reasoning self-refuting at points, trying to find a new narrative in order to exhaust the limit of pre-trial detention for all the defendants, thus attempting to satisfy two goals: on the one hand, the consolidation of state vindictiveness and on the other hand, the maintenance of the narrative of a terrorist organization. An organization without a name, without a history, without action, without even a substance, the invention of which serves on the one hand spectacular-communicational reasons, but also a serious upgrade of the indictment that carries the risk of lethal penalties.
The result of this pretentious delay in closing the case for 17 months, was the delay in issuing and final deliberations, with the result that the trial is now approaching the typical time limit for the end of detention for all the detainees in the case. A fact that in itself causes a rush in its definition and conduct, with the service of its summons to take place on 09/03, just 3 weeks before its start on April 1, suffocatingly pressing our preparation time. I am therefore called, on April 1st, to stand trial accused of forming and joining a terrorist organization, aggravated manufacture of explosive devices and possession of explosive materials and explosive devices, pistols and ammunition, explosion with possible intent, aggravated damage and illegal possession of weapons, in a trial that has shown signs of haste and carelessness from the beginning. The situation that is taking shape may not surprise me. I am very well aware of the role of civil justice within this specific system of exploitation, which while pretending to play its role within a “rule of law”, is in reality primarily interested in implementing the dictates of anti-terrorist and political leadership. Nevertheless, I categorically declare that I am not prepared to allow any acceleration of the trial to work against me and my co-defendants and my comrade Kyriakos himself.
And if the counter-terrorism service took, once again, 17 months to return to where it started from, without any new evidence but insisting on prosecuting me – bagging me with four other people who have absolutely no connection, involvement or knowledge in the case, the trial in question includes a new method. The complete absence of all the counter-terrorism cops from the prosecution’s witnesses. That is, the prosecution, under the orders under which the investigations took place, the arrest warrants were issued and the charges were filed, considers that there is no reason to appear in the proceedings. That is, the prosecution does not appear in a case that it itself is prosecuting. I am not in a position to know the exact reasons why this happened. It is a fact that with the new amendments of 2024 (Floridis Law) it is now possible not to call the police officers who draw up an indictment and lead the pre-trial stage in the trial in an obvious attempt to protect themselves from foreseen contradictions that will eventually arise. However, especially in this case, with such a perforated indictment and a case file full of contradictions, gaps and obvious shortcomings, the absence of anti-terrorist police officers from the prosecution’s witness list aims to protect them in the courtroom with the expected deconstruction of their fabrications.
Whether it comes or not, the responsibilities will be attributed to them. Responsibility for the shameful way in which they treated the family of my comrade Kyriakos Ximitiris in the first hours of the explosion, which far exceeds the moral limits that these unscrupulous guys who swear by democracy and legality supposedly invoke and that they supposedly protect. Responsibility also for the order to take a DNA sample while I was still unconscious in Evangelismos. Responsibility for the fact that once again, like so many others in its years of action, the counter-terrorism is the spearhead of repression with surveillance, persecution, imprisonment of countless fighters.
On the contrary, I will be there. I will be there to assume the responsibilities that fall to me, to defend the political choice for the position I held on 31/10. I will be there to stand up to a mechanism that proves its bias every day and that, for decades now, has been unfolding its full vindictiveness in the face of fighters. Despite all the possible consequences, however, I will proudly defend my partner’s choices, the necessity of fighting by all means, the gravity of this choice and the imprint it leaves. And I will be there because the political space to which I have belonged for the last 15 years of my life is dominated by other values and agendas than those promoted by the system. It does not shift the responsibilities of others as the government does every day, it does not defend partisanship and individual interest as the system promotes, and it does not choose the easy path of selfishness as its representatives choose.
I will not attend the trial to bow my head, nor to renounce my ideas and responsibilities. But I will not give even one more day of freedom to their hands for actions that I not only did not do but also for which there is no evidence to support them. Moreover, the issue of the trial is mainly the preservation of the revolutionary memory of the comrade. Of the deposition of all these elements that make him such an indispensable and unique comrade and person. For me, this is the stake of this particular trial; the prevalence of the image of comrade Kyriakos as we knew him, learned about him, experienced him. As a deeply revolutionary man who, beyond his commitment and presence in the field, decided to sharpen his way of acting despite the adverse conditions that prevail. This is for me the legacy that I hope such a trial will leave. Of devotion and faith in the revolutionary vision even during the greatest challenge. The sign of solidarity and the defense of projects that want us continuously and practically against those who oppress our lives and alongside those who struggle by all means. The dignity and pride that befits our political space from whose bosoms fighters like Kyriakos emerge. People who do not retreat, do not compromise, whose sparkling gaze is enough to illuminate even the most difficult path.
But Kyriakos will be there too. That’s where his heart will beat. Next to me and all the accused. Next to his comrades. He will be there because he knows that the fight for memory is a collective affair and is not simply necessary but essential. Essential for a movement to exist and have a future. Because the stories of those who fell are the ones that inspired others to rise. And as much as the weight of loss bends our knees, it is enough to take a look at that sparkling gaze of his for the fatigue to be shared and the fear to diminish. And if at some point we become discouraged, a look at his genuine smile is enough to remember that nothing is over.
With Kyriakos as our companion, it is in our hands, inside and outside the walls, to reverse the terms of the trial both before and during it. To put a stop to the injustice that has become law, to the bias that has become habit. To perceive justice as a battlefield and the trial as a political conflict. Since the field is already mined, it is an unequal battle, in which there is no middle ground. Either you give up or you fight until the end. And what I can say with certainty is that I and certainly Kyriakos would choose the latter. We are right, we will win.
KYRIAKOS XYMITIRIS ALWAYS PRESENT HONOR FOREVER TO ANARCHIST COMRADE SARA ARDIZONE AND ANARCHIST COMRADE ALESSANDRO MERCOLIANO STATE AND CAPITAL THE ONLY TERRORISTS
It took 512 days for the authorities to finally decide that it was time to try our case, the Ampelokipi case. Just one breath before the end of the 18-month period. Not because the investigative process was truly endless, nor because new evidence was constantly emerging in the meantime. From the very first moment, the facts were more or less the same.
The choice, however, to set the trial at the last minute was neither accidental nor procedural. It was a purely political choice, a conscious method so that the process would run on a fast track and the desired decision would be produced, with the same speed. Nevertheless, in this last text of mine before the trial, I will not dwell in detail on the practices and methods that the judicial authorities employ against us. These are already known to anyone who wants to see them.
My aim is to bring things back to their true dimension, against the fabricated version that the anti-terrorist police and then the investigator and prosecutors tried to impose. That is why I want and must talk about what has already happened and what is to follow. In two days I will be in this court, because a year and a half ago I lent the keys to an apartment to my friends and comrades, Kyriakos and Marianna, so that they could host acquaintances.
I will stand in this court accused of terrorism, with charges of membership and participation in an unknown organization, with an unknown structure, unknown roles, unknown duration, as well as for manufacturing, supplying and possessing explosives and weapons. An indictment that was drawn up overnight, based on flimsy evidence, which 2 months ago the court began to collapse with the removal of charges of this explosion and damage.
Or, to be more precise, the only “elements” that the counter-terrorism police relied on to construct this indictment were the criminalization of everyday acts, the criminalization of political opinion, and the criminalization of friendly and companionate relationships.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Thus, our case not only has a past that already counts a year and a half, but also a future. A future inextricably linked to the struggle.That is why, in two days, I will be in this court to fight my own fight, defending my anarchist identity, the radical revolutionary struggle, my relationships with my friends and comrades, and above all the memory of my comrade, Kyriakos Xymitiris.
I will stand in this courtroom to fight to the end for my freedom — a freedom that I will not give them, not even for one more day than the 512 they have already deprived me of. And if the counterterrorism department is given institutional cover to fabricate indictments in this way, then the responsibility for my conviction on an indictment that I deny rests with the current composition of the bench.
This also concerns all those who feel that behind bars are not only the prisoners, but also a part of themselves. Those who remain present in every field of radical struggle. Because it is also in their hands to erect a mound, to not allow injustice to become law. Nevertheless, in two days I will find myself in this court, which has a weight much greater than that of the indictments and legal characterizations. Because within this process there is also a loss.
There is the memory of our friend and comrade, Kyriakos Xymitiris, a memory that does not fit into any case file. For this very reason, this court has an importance that goes beyond the limits of a formal trial. That is why more is at stake around this trial than meets the eye. Because within these courts I will not only defend myself, but also Kyriakos himself. I will speak about my friend and comrade on my own terms, not with the language of power, nor through the filters of the case file, but through the life he lived, the struggles he gave and what he chose to defend with all his heart, dedicating his life to it. His absence, is simultaneously a deep, intense presence; because there are people like Kyriakos who, even when they are gone, continue to light the way and show with their very lives why it is worth standing up.
So my friend and comrade Kyriakos Xymitiris will be there in the knot in my throat, in the strength I find not to give in, in the need to keep alive everything we shared and everything he defended. He will be with me, next to me, like a hand on my shoulder, like a breath that reminds me that nothing is over and that the struggle continues.
KYRIAKOS ALWAYS PRESENT HONOUR FOREVER TO THE ANARCHIST COMRADES SARA ARDIZONE AND ALESSANDRO MERCOLIANO
Dimitra Zarafeta Korydallos Women’s Prison
Solidarity actions are ongoing internationally:
Santiago, Chile:
“THE CONSPIRACY SHINES IN OUR EYES
Solidarity with the prisoners of the Ampelokipoi case.
Honour to Kyriakos Xymitiris”.
Painted on Line 5 of the Santiago Metro by anonymous anarchists in early April 2026.
Complicity and solidarity with the prisoners of the social war!
And especially in Greece, with many communiques and action report-backs available to read on the usual counter-info sites.
International Repression Against Direct Action for Palestine
At least ten people have so far been arrested in connection to the arson of a Czech-Israeli weapons manufacturer on March 20 claimed by the so-called “Earthquake Faction.”
Although detailed English-language sources are scarce, in addition to the five people arrested (including one American) in the Czech Republic, three people have been arrested in Poland, one in Bulgaria, and another in Slovakia (also an American). Many are facing decades in prison under terrorism charges.
One of the defendants was seen shouting “Free Palestine” while being captured by Czech police, and Czech police have announced that others have refused to co-operate and/or testify.
We know the names of at least two of those arrested, Youssef Moursi, an American, and Anežka Brahová, a Czech Palestinian activist.
If any readers are aware of international solidarity for the defendants, please share so we can help amplify support.
The “Earthquake Faction” shared the following communique, taking responsibility for the action in solidarity with the struggle for Palestinian liberation:
For as long as the land continues to bleed under Israeli bombs in Occupied Palestine and across West Asia, ground must continue to shake under the feet of the sponsors of occupation.
We are The Earthquake Faction, an internationalist underground network that targets key sites critical to the Zionist entity. We aim to destroy all limbs of empire from within, by any means effective.
On March 20th 2026, we struck the epicenter of the Israeli weapons industry in Europe. In Pardubice, Czech Republic, Elbit Systems’ “Centre of Excellence” was newly built in collaboration with LPP, to service the global expansion of Israel’s biggest weapons producer. Whilst the development, production and training center was empty, The Earthquake Faction intervened to destroy its equipment and set the factory ablaze. No one was harmed.
During the Gaza genocide in 2024, LPP’s CEO said “one of the projects we are preparing with Elbit concerns the Israeli military”. Their “Centre of Excellency” is used as a means to develop weaponry used by the Zionist entity to massacre people daily in Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, and across West Asia. Every weapon developed by Elbit Systems is first “tested” on Palestinians, before being sodl on to international governments, expanding the empire built off the destruction of Palestine.
Wherever Elbit Systems and their accomplices obscure and hide their business of bloodshed across the world, we will come for them.
We are in the belly of the beast, surrounded by the stench of evil. The technology, weaponry and capital needed to maintain the imperial and Zionist violence are all within our reach. The Earthquake Faction will shake the ground under the boots of the colonizers; while even an atoms weight of their evil remains, we will strike it out.
There is no time to beg the complicit international governments. We will not waste ourbreath asking nicely. Instead, we will take necessary action to quash their means to kill.
PALESTINE ACTION UK
Filton 24 Re-Trial
6 members of the Filton 24, accused of breaking into a secret Elbit factory in Bristol and destroying a shipment of killer quadcopter drones that Israel uses in Gaza, were acquitted at trial and finally released after 18 months behind bars. Yet, the Crown Prosecution Service was quick to announce a re-trial,
“There Isn’t a Boot Big Enough in this Whole World to Crush the Resistance”
The released Filton 24 prisoners held a press conference on March 25, denouncing the state’s weaponization of counter-terrorism powers against Palestine solidarity.
The press conference was livestreamed by the Crispin Flintoff Show on YouTube and can be viewed here.
From Free the Filton 24:
Four of the speakers were part of the largest hunger strike in British prisons since the 1981 Irish hunger strike. The released prisoners spoke out for the first time since their release from pre-trial detention to expose the violence they faced by counter-terrorism police and the prison service, the systematic violation of their rights, and the politicisation of their imprisonment.
Madeleine Norman, 31
Madeleine Norman explained how they had taken previous action with Palestine Action, but had never been treated as a “terrorist” until they were raided and arrested by counter-terrorism police in August 2024. Madeleine was transported by “men with balaclavas and shades in a convoy of 3 jeeps” and like the others arrested, was denied a phone call for two weeks, and a visit until several weeks later. They were deemed an “escape risk”, allegedly for “drawing another prisoner in the setting of the prison”. This led to them having to be escorted by guards constantly, denied medication, surveilled during phone calls and denied their own clothes. Madeleine was also repeatedly moved from prison to prison, isolating them further from family and co-defendants. When they first arrived at HMP Low Newton, the prison made everyone on their wing “undergo training on how to spot and report on radicalisation”. Madeleine explained how “posters were confiscated from their cell for ‘extremism’ that simply read ‘bombing kids is not self-defence’ and ‘Free Palestine’”. In spite of the repression Madeleine faced for their political stance, they said “I know that nothing I had experienced, or would experience, was even a drop in the ocean compared to the unfathomable suffering endured by Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.”
Qesser Zuhrah, 21
Qesser Zuhrah was arrested by counter-terror police on 19th November 2025 and released 15 months later. During the press conference, she explained how “the purpose of oppression is to humiliate” and “to force people into lives that are utterly inhumane through the complete theft of dignity”. She said this was the “purpose of the Zionist occupation of Palestine” and “the purpose of our imprisonment”. Eight months into her imprisonment on remand, her younger brother was also arrested and remanded in connection to the same action. She described this move as the state attacking her “dignity as a big sister”. Qesser also explained how she had been repeatedly assaulted by male guards during her imprisonment and how her hunger strike was a means to “resist”. She said they assaulted her “to make an example out of me, and told other prisoners “if you try to be heroes, this is what we’ll do to you”. She added “Under such indignity, how could we not resist?” Qesser explained how the prison “wanted to push” her “to the point of death”, leaving her on her cell floor “paralysed for 22 hours from muscle wastage, refusing to call an ambulance”. Despite the brutality of the state, Qesser said “here we stand, steadfast, as custodians of this most just Palestinian cause, that we forged our bond with through struggle and sacrifice”.
Kamran Ahmed, 28
Kamran Ahmed was raided by dozens of counter-terror police officers on 19th November 2025, and remained imprisoned for 15 months on remand before he was released alongside his co-defendants. He said he and his elderly parents “were being dehumanised” by the officers during the raid, which involved the police denying his mother food from her own kitchen to eat with her medication. Whilst detained, he took part in the joint hunger strike and refused food for 66 days. During this time, he was repeatedly taken to hospital due to medical complications. Whilst in the hospital, he remained cuffed to an officer the whole time. Despite the dehumanisation Kamran faced, his words echoed his strong sense of humanity. He said “Today, on the other side of the world in Gaza, a kid works his way through the rubble. He hopes he will find some aid or some water or in a distant dream, he hopes he might find his parents he knows are dead. Whilst I sit here, he survives there. Whilst I talk here, he silently cries there, and if given the opportunity he would probably be able to fix a car better than I ever could, but the mystery called destiny has placed him there and me here. He added “I hope we allowed one more kid in Gaza to smile for one more day”. During the press conference, Kamran also revealed that last year, he was granted bail by an experienced counter-terrorism Judge, a decision which was overturned immediately and “the judge was removed from all future proceedings on my case”. He said “if there was ever a wink-wink nudge-nudge moment, that would be it”.
Teuta Hoxha, 30
Teuta Hoxha, who went on hunger strike twice whilst on remand for 15 months, said they “were violently arrested by counter terrorism police, ministers like David Lammy and James Timpson were willing to let us die on hunger strike and thousands have been arrested under the Terrorism Act for holding up placards. She added “We say to Shabana Mahmood enough damage has been done” and called on her to withdraw the appeal of the High Court judgment which ruled the Palestine Action ban unlawful. Teuta’s first hunger strike which lasted 28 days ended after her demands were met, which included being given her mail and a written justification for the further repression she faced. The justification explained that she was removed from the job due to the proscription of Palestine Action, which happened nearly eight months after she was first imprisoned. Her second hunger strike was part of a joint strike with seven other Palestine Action prisoners. During which, she lost 20% of her body weight. Commenting on the strike, she said “The hunger strike peeled back the layers of cruelty this government is capable of against its own citizens in order to protect its foreign genocidal project. They were willing to let us die for a ban that was later proved to be unlawful.”
Heba Muraisi, 31
Heba Muraisi who was on remand for 15 months, described the violent raid she faced by counter terrorism police. She explained how dozens of officers used chainsaws to break through the front door of the residence she was in, and had undressed her on the public street. Whilst in prison, Heba faced repeated incidents of violent at the hands of the guards. She detailed one incident, in which she was “violently cuffed and dragged across the prison by 6 guards”, “had my head shoved into my stomach and had the wind knocked out of me”. Then “my body was then thrown into solitary confinement, with a guard pushing my face to the floor and aggressively pulling my restrained arms into an unbearable position”. Heba has family in Gaza, who at the time of her imprisonment and to this day, were facing continuous bombardment by the Israeli military during the ongoing genocide. Whilst incarcerated, she undertook a hunger strike for 73 days, the longest in British history. During the press conference, she said how her experience is “nothing in comparison to the thousands of unlawfully detained Palestinians, who are routinely imprisoned from the age of 14 onwards. They face relentless torture, rape – including by dogs and other objects”. She said it is the Palestinians “courage that’s inspired me and enabled me to face the abuse of the British state”.
Palestine Action Still Criminalized
The British state continues to crackdown on any form of Palestine solidarity. April 11 for “Everyone Day,” more than 500 were arrested in central London in Trafalgar Square demonstrating “unwaning resistance to the ban on Palestine Action” [1].
Charges were dismissed against one of the three charged as part of the “Zündlumpen” case, part of broader repression in Germany targeting the alleged editors of an anarchist street newspaper.
To learn more about the history of this case, check out:
Criminal or association? Charges dropped against one of the three accused in the Munich “Zündlumpen” case
Once again yellow envelopes fly into the mailboxes of anarchists in Munich. This time without the spirited ramblings of our favorite General SA employee Firoozi (or rather we seem to be her favorites). Instead this time it is the association “VRIOLG Dr. Stoll” & Co., from the higher court of Munich, that has honored some anarchists with their text. More than three months after the judicial association Himmelstoß & Co. declined to reopen the “Zündlumpen” case in the Staatsschutz (SS) chamber, due to a lack of evidence connecting one of the accused to the publishing of “Zündlumpen,” and after General SA Firoozi appealed the decision, the higher court of Munich has finally graced us with their decision.
The judicial association Himmelstoß & Co. had already surprised us with their aversion to the implausible storyline of the Firoozi’an indictment. Now the judicial association Stoll & Co., despite their institutional and ideological connection to the General SA and her affinity for the fundamentally suspect literary genre of jurisprudence, seems to be offended by General SA Firoozi’s literary competence. They also found the Firoozi’an plot around “Zündlumpen” so implausible that they affirmed the objection made by the Himmelstoß association, and declined to pursue the case against one of the three accused, due to a lack of evidence.
Admittedly General SA Firoozi made little effort to defend her plot in the appeal. Contradicting all of the judicial principles that the post-national socialist german state relies on to legitimize it’s rule over land and people, she argued that, the fact that nothing proves that the third accused had anything to do with the publication or distribution of “Zündlumpen,” doesn’t mean that he still couldn’t have had something to do with “Zündlumpen.” It is unclear how General SA Firoozi got this job, since she seems to have slept through even the introductory lecture in law school, but this is of little interest to us. Clearly this statement was too garish for the association Stoll & Co. and so they denied General SA Firoozi’s appeal and definitively declined to open a case against the third accused. Thereby also declining to open a case for criminal association because according to § 129 StGB this requires three accused.
In her original indictment in the “Zündlumpen” case General SA Firoozi wrote that the “Anarchist cookbook” and “PRISMA,” found in Nathalie’s basement, can be considered “manuals to commit serious violent crimes against the state” and claimed that Manuel and Nathalie acquired these manuals with the intention to kill police officers. She argues this based on the fact that the “Anarchist Cookbook” contains instructions on how to modify a shotgun and how to build a silencer and the “PRISMA” includes a manual on how to make a Molotov-cocktail. She goes on to state that texts hostile to the police and all of the “ingredients” to make a Molotov-cocktail were found in the same basement. The judicial association Himmelstoß & Co. dropped this charge because it exceeds the statue of limitations; it cannot be determined at which point in time these texts were acquired and so it must be assumed that this happened outside of the statute of limitation. In her appeal General SA Firoozi doesn’t even make an effort to defend this charge. Her original argument must have offended the higher court association Stoll & Co. so much that they not only upheld Himmelstoß’ dropping of the charges, but couldn’t help but remark that the only potential “ingredient” for a Molotov-cocktail that was found was a piece of clothe. The SS cops KHM Rommeis and PK Schneider didn’t even manage to find the cliche “ten empty bottles of wine,” that used to be enough to charge people with making Molotovs, let alone the benzine, diesel, glue or styrofoam, in Nathalie’s basement.
However, the higher court association Stoll & Co. did do General SA Firoozi one favor and opened the case in lower court. At least the judicial association Himmelstoß & Co., who were not particularly excited about the “Zündlumpen” case to begin with, don’t have to busy themselves with the matter anymore, since the the criminal association charge has been dropped and the case will be handled in a normal lower court. This decision is based on the amount of files, more than 10.000 pages, as well as the expected uncooperative attitude of Manuel and Nathalie, and the extended duration of the proceedings, which is illustrated by the fact that already, especially during their 7 month long pre-trial detention, three binders were filled with motions and appeals. But the decision to move the case to the lower court is also especially based on the expected “public interest” in the “Zündlumpen” case.
Aha, who would have thought that the judicial system would so blatantly announce that they intend to hold a show trial in which anarchist ideas will be denounced by proxy. It is clear from the “ideological categorization” that these ideas, at least as articulated by “Zündlumpen,” offend the sensibilities of Dr. Stoll & Co. who previously ranted about the use of the term “judicial pigs.” When reading the astonishing analysis of the “ideology” of “Zündlumpen” one can’t help but think that years of studying entire libraries filled with rules and regulations and engaging with legal sophistry and hairsplitting left little time to study the “elements and origins of total domination.” We were surprised to read that the “Zündlumpen” is attested a hostility to civilization considered to be “totalitarian.”
To our knowledge totalitarianism is usually understood to be the moment in which the radical climax of the enlightenment and civilization veers into the irrational and creates a totalitarian state. Or as the alienated character of the division of labor of a bureaucratic and technological civilization that potentiates “evil” in it’s banality. And not as a rejection of all state authority and the supposed “accomplishments” of modern civilization. But whatever, what do we care about the literacy skills of some judges. In any case, it is certain that the charges of criminal association against the supposed editorial of “Zündlumpen” have been dropped. And that, four years after the first house raids, the cops have no choice but to return all of the printers, the paper, and the publications, that they stole when they confiscated an entire printing space that they accused the anarchist, dismissed from the case, of operating. Four years later some state authorities, who previously signed off on every raid and every confiscation, have come to the conclusion that there isn’t actually any proof that the third accused was involved with “Zündlumpen.” Of course this must just be an honest mistake…
Once again we wait, but at least we can put down the bone-dry, although occasionally unintentionally useful, texts written by Firoozi and Stoll & Co. Now we can spend time on more exciting things, relieved to know we only have to deal with such monotony when compelled to at gun point.
RAIDS IN BERLIN
The anarchist library Kalabalik, several social spaces, and private apartements were raided in a coordinated wave of repression in Berlin on March 24.
Early in the morning of March 24, 2026, the time had come once again. The doors of 17 buildings in Berlin, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, and Kyritz were kicked in by a squad of masked figures who descended upon the people sleeping there, or, as in our case, upon bookshelves and newspaper archives. Reason for the violent wake-up call by the Berlin LKA, this time, was an arson attack last September on the power supply to the Adlershof Technology Park, which resulted in a widespread blackout. They’re looking for evidence to finally prove all the mental acrobatics of the investigation team “Spannung” [tension] to back up their hallucinated theories. This is at least what can be inferred from the search warrant presented, which was approved by enforcement judge Jacob. The places targeted were Infoladen Scherer8, L5 Späti, and several private apartments, and, as has happened several times in the past, the Anarchist Library Kalabalik in Kreuzberg.
All good things come in threes?
You might remember back in 2018 government snoops were already after something big. It was reported that folks wearing reggae hats had put up posters asking for help tracking down the politicians responsible for the 2017 G20 summit in Hamburg, as well as some of their particularly eager goons. They were also on the hunt for posters featuring photos of plainclothes cops.
Although they managed to seize a few of these during the raid (after all, one was hanging in our door window), their efforts to track down the mysterious posterers and their reggae hats failed, despite sparing no effort in this superimportant matter. Thus, this investigation soon came to an end without fanfare, and people are wondering whether the sudden outbreak of reggae fever at the LKA could have been the result excessive consumption of weed from the evidence room. Be that as it may, this is where the stolen items such as computers, posters, and so on were taken, where they were examined and secured until they found their way back to the Kalabalik two years later. However, this good fortune was short-lived, as the next act of this drama was soon to unfold. Back in September 2020, those heavily armed guys showed up on our doorstep — or, more precisely, in the library — once again. This time, they were acting on behalf of the Bundesanwaltschaft [federal prosecution] claiming that a few folks, some of whom were known to hang out there, had allegedly formed a criminal organization back in 2016. The authorities hoped the searches would turn up some evidence. Besides Kalabalik, five apartments in Berlin and two more in Athens were affected. This time, the BKA [federal police] took the lead, and in addition to the newly acquired electronic devices, didn’t hesitate to take along the evidence from the last raid—which they found there still packed up by the LKA. As of today, we haven’t seen any of the stuff back – whatever.
This case, nonetheless, would go on to have far-reaching consequences and keep those involved occupied for many years. And yet, despite extensive surveillance measures, tapped phones, bugged vehicles, an extremely talkative rapist and traitor, and thousands of pages of files — it was all just hot air. Even though the efforts to give this drama a twist are clearly evident, this case was also shelved in the fall of 2025 without any charges or a trial.
[…]
Our views have never been a secret, and we will not hide them now in the face of the latest intimidation attempts by the authorities. The raids, which were justified as part of an investigation into an act of sabotage, serve as an opportunity for us to place these events in a context that allows us to assess them outside the framework of bourgeois justice. Our own values and principles center around the well-being of all living beings, not the legal code of those in power. That’s why we’re clear on this: no sympathy for the world’s arms manufacturers and tech corporations, no tears for their lost profits.
The Brown Swamp
They may call us criminals because we don’t play by their rules. Because we will never accept that some people have the right to dictate the lives of others, and because we do not condemn people who do what they feel is necessary to put an end to these injustices. In their eyes, this makes us suspicious. Just as it makes us suspicious when we distribute pamphlets naming those responsible for war and the destruction of the environment, or lend out books inspired by the spirit of freedom and anarchy that tell us heartfelt stories of solidarity and resistance. We are suspicious because we stand with the oppressed and the imprisoned, and because we dream of a world without states, borders, or prisons, and do everything in our power to make those dreams come true.
We see all of this as the reason why the cops break down our door at more or less regular intervals, and why their two- and four-legged creatures (some less willingly than others) feel the need to snoop around in our lives. What happened to us and the many others affected on March 24, we see as an expression of an increasingly authoritarian state, where political pressure (from the far right) has a growing influence on how our enemies interpret their own laws, and where the door is wide open to arbitrariness. Not that we ever trusted this state, but some things do differ significantly in quality and quantity from what we have known so far. For example, we are not aware of any recent cases involving the search of parents’ flats as well as the seizure of all their electronic devices. It is also new to the Berlin context that, in almost all cases, cell phones, laptops, etc., are seized not only from the accused but also from all flatmates, regardless of their relationship to the accused. In addition, several search warrants were issued against people who are not listed as suspects in the proceedings but are said to have a “close relationship” with the accused.
[…]
We will not be discouraged
Overall, we’re in good spirits, and the chaos left behind has been largely cleared up. We are moved by the tremendous solidarity and support we’ve received since the raid, both from the neighborhood and from many helping hands during the cleanup. This gives us the strength and courage to keep going. With a little distance, the whole „EG Spannung“ operation seems like nothing more than blind activism and a poor attempt to intimidate people, isolate communities, and divide them on the basis of types of action that are, in part, the subject of controversial debate. It seems they have not succeeded in any of this; on the contrary, most people hardly pay any attention to the cheap propaganda of the cops and their hate-mongering tabloids, but rely instead on their own judgment. After all, people know that we are not the ones developing technologies to spy on dissidents, sending weapons to war zones, letting refugees drown in the Mediterranean, or building chemical plants that poison the planet.
Sending love and strength to:
All other people and projects affected by the raids!
Our friends and comrades of Ampelokipi case, who are on trial since last week!
Nanuk and all Antifas who are on trial in Dresden and Düsseldorf or in coercive detention!
Daniela, who is now facing charges for being part of RAF!
The ULM5, who are awaiting trial for destroying the arms factory of Elbit!
… all other prisoners, persecuted and comrades on the run.
Courage and good luck to you!
Kalabalik
Chaos Star Case
Update on the Trials of Bandung Anarchist Prisoners (Chaos Star Case) in Indonesia
On April 16, 2026, the verdicts were delivered for five of our comrades at the Bandung District Court. The details are as follows:
* Albi: sentenced to 6 months in prison for the Bandung unrest in August–September 2026.
* Pem: sentenced to 9 months in prison for the arson attack on the police post in Gentong, West Java.
* Herdi: sentenced to 9 months in prison for the arson attack on the police post in Gentong, West Java.
* Nopal: sentenced to 1 year in prison for the arson attack on the police post in Gentong, West Java.
* Adit: sentenced to 1 year in prison for the arson attack on the police post in Gentong, West Java.
Also, the first trial of our comrade Dena, also known as Apip or Scoobydoomz, has been postponed and is now scheduled for April 24, 2026.
This trial marks the beginning of proceedings against comrades involved in the arson of Hana Bank during protests against the Indonesian Military Bill in March 2025. Adit, Nopal, and Jalus may face further trials for separate charges.
Note:
Adit and Nopal have already faced two trials on different charges, and the combined sentences they currently face total three years in prison, not including the upcoming verdict for the Hana Bank arson in Bandung.
Gregorius Hugo, also known as Bake or Bex (informant), received only 7 months and 15 days—a sentence that can be considered virtually a free pass due to time already served in police and prosecution custody. This light sentence, despite his key involvement in the Gentong case, confirms his role as an informant/dead fucking snitch and his cooperation with the authorities! We advise international networks to cut ties with him.
For anarchy and the black international! Going Underground.
Dark Nights also published the defence statement of Adit, an anarchist prisoner in Chaos Star Case:
Your Honorable Panel of Judges,
After everything that has happened regarding the act of violence I committed in the case of the burning of this police post, I have gained many things that I must take upon myself. About how the state —long before what I did— has carried out acts of violence on a far greater scale.
To be honest, after the defense I presented in the case of the August 2025 demonstration was rejected, everything feels pointless. My defense in the previous trial was already very long, explaining everything in great detail. Yet my suspicion that the verdict had been determined from the beginning only grew stronger when the decision was finally struck with the gavel. The state has sentenced me to two years in prison, and now the state demands again that I be given the same sentence. And for that, I only have very little room to defend the violence that I have committed.
It has become an open secret that all forms of violence and abuse of power by state apparatus —(read: the police)— have produced forms of human rights violations. One of the most severe and intolerable is the taking of human life. The Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS) recorded 602 incidents of violence involving members of the Indonesian National Police from July 2024 to June 2025. From the Kanjuruhan tragedy, Randi and Yusuf, Afif Maulana, Gamma, Affan Kurniawan, Arianto Tawakkal, to Eko Prasetyo—the most recent—killed by the police.
As someone who condemns all forms of brutality by the authorities and who has pursued, in both theory and practice —through trial and error— the method of direct action to strengthen each individual in reclaiming control over their own life and using that power to fulfill their own aims, I eventually carried out a direct action. An action carried out individually, separate from actions in demonstrations or protests involving many people. An action that is only symbolically carried out to hold the state apparatus accountable for the violence they have committed.
Therefore, I have come to realize that the state only understands language through violence. It is the only language they understand. And I carried out the violence I committed in a language that is poetic —one they do not understand.
In a world as described above, to remain silent and do nothing while the state apparatus continuously demonstrates acts of violence—this is the problem. The question is not whether violence itself can be justified or not, but rather how violence can be maximally made effective to annihilate those “brutal monsters.”
Lastly, I only wish to say this: quickly end all of this exhausting pretense. Deliver the duration of the sentence. And let me calmly live through the time you have taken from me in contemplation.
Adit
ONGOING CASES
Free Turtle!
[image: freeturtlesosie IG]
Lytle (Turtle), our beloved neurodivergent Diné relative, was brutally arrested by Flagstaff PD on Feb 13th, 2026. Turtle was profiled and brutalized by police and is now facing unfair and inflated federal charges. We’ve secured an attorney to represent Turtle in his fight for justice! Now we’re raising $9,000 to cover his legal defense, commissary needs, and re-entry support when he comes home. He is an artist, sheepherder, water/land protector, and uncle to many children who love and miss him. He is needed back in his community. Support him by donating to his legal fund, writing to him, and contributing to his commissary.
💚🐢🪶 Turtle’s next court appearance is Monday April, 27th at 1pm at The Coconino Court in Flagstaff, AZ. This will be a very brief “case management” public hearing. Please show up if you can. Learn about other ways to support locally 📍Let’s show Turtle, his community and the courts that we will be here to fight for justice, every step of the way! Can’t make it to court? 📨 Character letters are needed! They can make a huge impact on the judge. DM us or email freelytletsosie@proton.me if you can write a letter before April 27th. PLEASE CONTINUE TO FOLLOW, SHARE AND DONATE! #freeturtle
The Board of Immigration Appeals issued a final order of removal of Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil. Mahmoud, who is appealing this ruling and has a separate Habeas Corpus case in the federal Court of Appeals, responded:
I am not surprised by this decision from the biased and politically motivated Board of Immigration Appeals. I have committed no crime. I have broken no law. The only thing I am guilty of is speaking out against the genocide in Palestine — and this administration has weaponized the immigration system to punish me for it.
My family is here. My life is here. I reject any attempt to intimidate me out of my home based on lies and ideological attacks. This is not justice. This is just another attempt to retaliate against me. I will continue fighting for my rights in court, and I will not be deterred — for me, my family, and all immigrants in this country who want to speak out against injustice.
Muhammad Ali, a University of Pittsburgh student who was arrested on three felonies during a brief interaction during the Palestinian encampment, is expected to go to trial in May, while other similar local cases have been resolved through diversion agreements or plea deals for lesser charges. A recent Dropsite News article explores the selective targeting of pro-Palestinian activists [2].
Federal charges proceed against three of the original “Spokane 9”: although 6 codefendants had already plead guilty, Jac Archer, Justice Forral and Bajun Mavalwalla II have hearings in May having been charged with conspiracy to impede or injure ICE agents for allegedly defending two neighbors being arrested by immigration arrests [2]. Bajun Mavalwalla II recently gave an interview with PBS: “Conspiracy requires people communicating and planning it out and saying, yes, we’re going to do this and this is why we’re going to do it and this is how we’re going to do it. None of that happened, at least as far as — not as far as I know. I wasn’t part of any of it” [4].
Support Jailhouse Lawyer Khalfani in his Fight Against Cruel and Unusual Punishment!
IDOC Watch is circulating a fundraiser for jailhouse lawyer Khalfani Khaldun.
Khalfani is a longtime comrade and integral part of IDOC Watch. He is currently pursuing for a federal civil rights lawsuit against the cruel and unusual treatment he has faced while incarcerated in IDOC facilities. His lawsuit lays out the systemic and years-long medical neglect he has been subject to, resulting in severe kidney disease and other related health issues.
Khalfani is asking for support in gathering funds to file an appeal of the initial judgement that was rule against him. The total cost for Khalfani to file will be $605
Support Khalfani by donating directly to the IDOCWatch paypal and cashapp! Venmo: @IW_funds Paypal: @iwfunds (add ‘For Khalfani’ in notes)
Resource Distribution Program / Political Prisoner Support Initiative
Free Tha Land DAPS family, here is an update to our Free Store Program in collaboration with @thelastpoet_hhb & @sol_said_earth_ ! Our distribution program, operating every friday in South Shore, is collecting donations for hygiene amenities and clothing resources. Every donation allows us to continue addressing the needs of the community, fighting back against manufactured resource scarcity in our beloved neighborhoods, whilst providing monetary support for 3 of Our Movement’s Political Prisoners. We are raising our donation goal from $600 to $800 so that $200 can be reserved to support Mumia Abu Jamal, Jakhi Mcray, and Malik Muhammad. We keep each other safe, fed & clothed. Free tha resources, Free tha land!
REPRESSION
Tuscon Anti-Repression Crew shared a beautiful, inspiring statement from Ryan, a Tucson activist arrested in December at the confrontation with ICE agents at the Taco Giro in Tucson on the repression they endured and inspiration to continue resisting:
On Friday, March 6, I accepted a non-cooperating plea deal in federal court and plead guilty to one count of “depredation of government property.” I was sentenced to one year probation, a $1,000 fine, and community service. I did not, nor would I ever, provide information to the state about anyone else in exchange for this plea.
As part of the plea, I admitted to kicking out the taillights of an unmarked ICE vehicle while attempting to disrupt an ICE raid on the Taco Giro restaurant on Grande Ave on December 5, 2025. That day, a crowd of 100 or more people of conscience decided to confront ICE after agents trapped themselves and their dozen cars in the restaurant parking lot with only one way out. The crowd blocked the only entrance, locked the gates shut with u-locks, and demanded ICE prove they weren’t kidnapping any of our neighbors before they’d be allowed to leave. Dozens of agents were delayed for hours and prevented from carrying out whatever sick missions they were scheduled for that day. We later learned that 46 people were kidnapped that day from Taco Giro locations, and private residences, around Southern Arizona. My thoughts and prayers go out to them and their families. Notably, no one ended up being kidnapped from the Grande location where agents were confronted.
As part of my plea, my attorneys suggested I apologize for my actions and characterize them as momentary lack of judgement triggered by the severity of the violence I witnessed on the part of the ICE agents. But to do so would have been dishonest. I did not lose control of myself and I did not act purely out of emotion, but out of a deeply held spiritual and moral belief in the necessity of bold action in the face of evil. I believed in that moment, and continue to believe, that the lives of my community members are worth more than the taillights of an ICE vehicle and that property destruction is a useful and often necessary political act. Violations of the sanctity of property, especially property held and controlled by law enforcement, ICE, and other evildoers, can be a powerful tool on the part of regular people to express their opposition to injustice and take concrete steps to strike back at unjust actors who only understand the language of force.
Because I was arrested that day and taken away by ICE agents, I happen to know that their Sprinter van, which was packed full of tools and weapons they use to hurt and kidnap our community members, was disabled that day outside the Taco Giro by some unknown brave individual with the forethought to slash one of its tires. Although the van was able to drive away from the scene, it soon had to be towed to a tire shop and was out of commission for at least the rest of the day. This caused ICE agents confusion and paperwork and deprived them of an important tool they use to commit acts of violence.
Only in a truly sick society could an attack on a tire or a taillight result in a weekend in jail and trigger a legal proceeding, a fine, and probation, while 46 people kidnapped and locked in cages is legally sound. A situation in which the law does not conform to the notions of right and wrong held by a substantive portion of the population is a situation that is ripe for activity outside the law.
I’m inspired by those in Tucson and around the country who are taking bold action to disrupt ICE. I’m also inspired by the bravery and resilience of migrants who refuse to let an imaginary line on a map, or a fake wall full of holes, stop them from moving freely across this land.
Chamel Abdulkarim
29 year old Chamel Abdulkarim was arrested on federal arson charges for burning down the Kimberly-Clark warehouse where he worked as a contractor. Chamel posted a video of himself starting the fire that caused approximate 500 million in damages explaining “1% is a fucking joke … Billionaires profiting off of war… All you had to do was pay us enough to live. Pay us more of the value WE bring. Not corporate. Didn’t see the shareholders picking up a shift.”
No other public support information is currently known; Chamel is currently being held at West Valley Jail in San Bernardino County and can be written to at this address.
Chamel A Abdulkarim #2604340584 SBCSD West Valley Jail 9500 Etiwanda Ave Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91739
“New Weathermen Underground”
The feds arrest multiple people in connection to an alleged attempted bombing at the MacDill Air Force Base offices which has been the focus of ongoing protests against the war in Iran. Alen Zheng is accused of placing an explosive device near the Dale Mabry Gate visitor center gates, later making a phone call to 911, and eventually travelling to China evading capture; his 27-year-old sister Ann Mary Zheng was arrested upon her return to the US accused of helping her brother and destroying evidence was denied release from jail pending trial for being a “flight risk” and is currently being held at the Pinellas County Jail [1].
The Tampa Bay Times says they received a three minute video claiming responsibility for the attempted bombing: without posting the full video, a “New Weathermen Underground” did the bombing “in opposition to the war in Iran by the Epstein pedophiles of the U.S. government”; they also paid respects to the Earthquake Faction that bombed the zionist weapons factory in the Czech Republic last month. [2]
The Trump Administration also used these arrests as a racist talking point attacking birthright citizenship; their parents Qiu Qin Zou and Jia Zhang Zheng were also arrested by DHS earlier in March having been denied asylum in 1998 [3].
The feds also arrested Jonathan James Elder for allegedly making multiple threatening calls to the MacDill base referencing the attempted bombing (although it’s unclear and seems unlikely he had any connection); he was denied bail pending trial and is also being held at the Pinellas County Jail. [4]
Federal arson charges in the arrest of Daniel Moreno-Gama, accused of throwing a molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s San Francisco home and attempting to break into OpenAI headquarters. According to prosecutors, Daniel sent out a statement explaining how AI is an existential threat to humanity, provided names and addresses of AI executives and investors, and stated “if I am going to advocate for others to kill and commit crimes, then I must lead by example”. Daniel is currently held at the San Francisco County Jail and faces both state and federal charges including attempted murder, attempted arson, possession of an explosive device, attempted property damage, destruction with an explosive, and possession of an unregistered gun. [5]
In a separate incident just days later, Amanda Tom and Muhamad Tarik were arrested and accused of firing shots around Sam Altman’s home and are also being held at the San Francisco County Jail. [6]
43-year-old Sarah George from Boise Idaho was ordered held pending trial in mid July having been arrested for federal arson charges against a building with offices leased by the Department of Homeland Security. Sarah allegedly stole an ambulance and drove it into the entrance of the building and was spreading gasoline over the area before being scared away by security; it took five days for authorities to locate and arrest her. Three days later in a separate incident, the building was targeted again with graffiti.
Charges were dismissed against the two former Louisville cops Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany who falsified the warrant leading to the murder of Breonna Taylor. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund responded “The Trump Administration’s request to dismiss these charges is an affront to Ms. Taylor’s family and friends, who deserve an opportunity to secure justice for such blatant police misconduct. An officer who betrays the public’s trust by falsifying a warrant should not be shielded from accountability under the law. To do so risks emboldening certain officers to continue to abuse their power and signals a double standard that fails to subject police officers to the same consequences faced by others for violating the law. Our hearts go out to Breonna Taylor’s family, who should never have been forced to endure the loss of their loved one or this most recent injustice.” [7]
Two immigration judges Roopal Patel and Nina Froes were fired by the Trump Administration due to their rulings in two high profile pro-Palestinian student activist cases Rumeysa Ozturk and Mohsen Mahdawipart as part of Trump’s effort to pressure judges to deny asylum claims and increase deportation orders. [8]
Dusten Mullen, a sergeant making $336k a year with the Phoenix Police Department, was suspended with pay after it was revealed that he had stalked a Hamilton High School anti-ICE walkout while armed and masked like an ICE agent intending to provoke confrontations with students: “My plan is legitimately to just let them all assault me and you guys arrest them all and I’ll keep it on film”. [9]
Several women imprisoned at Bryan Federal Prison Camp in Texas fear retaliation after reporting being sexually assaulted by multiple prison guards. A Marshall Project investigation reported that three staff are no longer employed by the BOP, including the prison chaplain Timothy Martin [10].
Further reflecting the pattern of increasingly bogus protest arrests eventually falling apart in court, state charges were dropped against 19 people who had been arrested at protests outside the Broadview ICE Processing Center. NLG Chicago joined volunteer attorneys and people still facing charges for a press conference to demand prosecutors drop charges against the remaining protesters:
“Thousands have mobilized for justice for community members facing kidnapping, imprisonment, and murder, only to then be arrested and charged by the state with alleged crimes carrying serious and unreasonable risks of jail time and fines. We should be centering and defending our community members as masked federal agents continue to carry out violent, warrantless arrests and unleash chemical weapons in residential neighborhoods.” AJ Noon, a protester arrested outside the Broadview Detention Center
“Moving forward with the prosecutions of protesters and rapid response volunteers makes our communities less safe. By prosecuting these cases, Illinois is silencing dissent and aiding the Trump administration’s attack on our immigrant community members. It would be a great tragedy if those who felt compelled to act and heeded those calls from our elected officials wound up with criminal records because they came together to object to people’s rights being violated and families being torn apart,” said Amanda Yarusso, NLG member and civil rights attorney.
In another defeat for federal prosecutors, a jury found Jonathan Caravello not guilty of “assault on a federal officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon” [1]. Caravello was arrested for throwing a live teargas cannister back towards agents during protests against the federal raid of Glass House Farms last July.
No Kings Inflatable “Aunt Tifa” Freed: Renea Gamble was acquitted at trial after being assaulted by police and charged for multiple ordinance violations for wearing an inflatable penis costume and providing the false name “Aunt Tifa” to police at a Fairhope AL “No Kings” protest last October [2].
Charges were dismissed against three people arrested during last month’s “No Kings” protest in Memphis; four cops were placed on administrative leave pending investigation as cops indiscriminately pepper-sprayed crowds arresting even those who were acting as “protest marshals”. [3]
DHS continues their violent racist colonial project of mass-deportations, shifting strategies towards more discrete and quick abductions in order to circumvent confrontations from rapid responders, attempting to dampen the aggressive optics popularized by Gregory Bovino and Kristi Noem before they were removed last month; Todd Lyons and Pam Bondi are also gone, but despite the changes in leadership the fascist project continues to ravage neighborhoods with raids and deportations.
In another tragic ICE shooting caught on film, federal agents shot Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez multiple times as he was pulled over on a Patterson California highway. After surviving three surgeries, he was quickly cleared for release from the hospital and handed over to the feds who arrested and transferred him through several jails with his current location unknown to even the family and attorney. [1]. Despite Homeland Security perpetuating the all-too-familiar “weaponized vehicle” and “gang-affiliatied” copaganda, a frame-by-frame breakdown of a motorists’ dashcam footage of the shooting demonstrates that neither officer was in front of the vehicle nor in any physical danger whatsoever when they shot Mendoza in his car multiple times [2].
Newly released footage shows that ICE lied to justify the shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis last January; two federal agents charging Julio with assault claimed they were attacked with a shovel and broom handle, but charges were ultimately dismissed and new footage shows that the agent shot Julio through the closed door of his home. [3] Please support the GoFundMe for the families targeted during this operation. [4]
Hennepin County filed charges and a nationwide warrant for ICE agent Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr of Temple Hills MD for two assault with a dangerous weapon felonies for pointing a gun at protesters in the first state prosecution of federal agents for actions during Operation Metro Surge [5]. Ramsey County prosecutors also claim they are considering kidnapping and burglary charges for federal agents involved in the arrest of ChongLy Scott Thao, a naturalized US citizen taken from his St. Paul home in boxers and slippers back in January. [6]
“As I write, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is converting some of the largest buildings in the country into shadow detention centers, where secret police will warehouse people, holding them without charge, before deporting them. The DHS warehouse is a place of flows made into a place of containment. A concealed infrastructure created by capitalists, adapted by fascists. A disappearing machine. You don’t need to know the history of warehouses to oppose their transformation into concentration camps. There are ways to slow down that machine, jam it up, break it apart, until we end it. But it is useful to know who owns the buildings for sale, who zones the land, who controls levers of power. Writing the warehouse into the atlas helps us diagram its disassembly.”
– Charmaine Chua, “The Warehouse, In Plain Sight” [1]
As DHS continues efforts to open new detention centers to facilitate the trafficking and warehousing of human beings, deaths in federal immigration custody are breaking national records.
Tuan Van Bui, a 55 year old man from Vietnam who lived in the US over 25 years, died on April 1 at the “Speedway Slammer” Miami Correctional Facility, the second death in just a few months after Indiana DOC contracted with Homeland Security last August to house up to 1000 people at MCF [2].
Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt, a 27-year old Cuban refugee, was held at Miami federal detention center when he was found dead in his cell in what authorities claims was an apparent suicide. Aled was originally arrested by local police and held on state charges which were eventually dropped, but because the Florida cooperates with ICE on immigration detainers, ICE put him in deportation hearings and transferred him to FDC Miami [3] [4].
Alejandro Cabrera Clemente, a 49 year old who had been in the US over 25 years, was found dead at the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana. Detention Kills reports that his death is “the most preventable yet” if only the privatized facility run by Lasalle Corrections had implemented any of the Corrective Action plans from previous audits [5] (or addressing the problems exposed by by undercover investigative journalist Shane Bauer who worked there for six month) [6]
Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano died at the Adelanto detention center: as the fourth death of a Mexican person so far this year, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum vowed action:“We’re going to take several steps to protest the death of yet another Mexican national”. Ramos-Solano’s daughter Gloria spoke through tears: “What happened to my dad was very inhumane … I think my family and I deserve to know the truth of what happened to my dad.” [7]
Protests continue to rage outside immigrant detention centers; after the “No Kings” demo in Portland, protesters marched right up to the entrance of the ICE Processing Center to burn flags and bust open the front gates. In Los Angeles, a march outside the the federal detention center was attacked by LAPD with chemical weapons, kettling protesters and arresting 75 people. Homeland Security claims agents were attacked with concrete bricks; an 18 year old USC student was filming the protest when a Homeland Security agent shot out his eye with “less than lethal” round. An April 11 national day of action saw protests in multiple cities; five arrests outside MDC Los Angeles, At Broadview and Portland, protesters brought hundreds of dildos to taunt the feds.
Dozens of rallies and vigils are planned for an April 25 Day of Action to Stop ICE Warehouses organized by Indivisible, MoveOn, Detention Watch Network, Communities Not Cages, Workers Circle and others. [8]
People detained at Alligator Alcatraz who protested after the detention center shut off phone access were brutally beaten and pepper-sprayed by guards. The ACLU Foundation and others have filed a lawsuit describing patterns of abuse and communication restrictions violating previous court orders to restore phone access. [9]
The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that federal immigration authorities can hold people indefinitely without holding a bond hearing, overturning a lower court ruling and siding with a similar 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last month [10].
Three Democratic congresspeople made an unannounced night inspection of the ICE staging facility at Mesa Gateway Airport and report inhumane conditions, people packed in like sardines, held for days beyond maximum capacity in a temporary area with no bedding or blankets mostly laying on the floor. Individuals scrambled to speak to the congresspeople: “It’s so hot in here, somebody has a fever, can you please help us, somebody is really sick in here.” [11]
Neiyerver Adrián Leon Rengel, a Venezuelan man who was sent to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador until the July 2025 prisoner swap, is now suing the United States for $1.3 million in damages. “For four months, Plaintiff languished in CECOT, during which time he was beaten by guards, subjected to inhumane and overcrowded conditions as well as extreme psychological trauma, denied adequate medical care, and held without contact with his family or any legal counsel”. Neiyerver described the experience as “total hell”. [12]
Burning Books added a new zine to their site, “Words from Assata Shakur.” This zine contains a number of Assata Shakur’s short, untitled writings detailing some of her experiences underground and in prison, along with her classic To My People and Women In Prison: How It Is With Us. It is peppered with archival newspaper clippings on associated Black Liberation Army incidents, her capture on the New Jersey Turnpike, her escape from prison, and her asylum in Cuba [1].
Former anarchist political prisoner Eric King’s book release talk with Josh Fernandez for A Clean Hell: Anarchy and Abolition in America’s Most Notorious Dungeon has been turned into a zine by with whatever weapons distro, adding to the prior collection of Rattling the Cages zines.
Zolo Azania sits down with The Dugout podcast for a wide-ranging interview “The Movement Is Not Stagnant” discussing his childhood, the Black Panthers, experiences as a political prisoner and more [2]. Please support Zolo on Patreon [3].
Kimberly C posted an article on Prison Journalism Project about being sent to solitary confinement for 44 days after censors misinterpreted a phone call where she used the metaphor “I’m ready to blow this joint” as a “security risk” [4].
Former Palestinian political prisoner Hadeel Shattara joins Popular Cradle Podcast to talk about the current situations in Zionist prisons and the achievements of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement. [5]
The Final Straw Radio Podcast has posted a new interview with recently released Black Autonomy Federation organizer Hybachi LeMar and an interview with Aarohi of the Xinachtli Freedom Campaign [6]:
First up, an interview that’s been a long time in the making. Hybachi LeMar is an anarchist who grew up in Chicago and began considering anarchism thanks to a letter he received from Anthony Rayson of the South Chicago Anarchist Black Cross Zine Distro during over a year in solitary confinement years ago. Since that time, Compa LeMar has been organizing with projects like IWOC, IWW IU613, the self-organized Liberation School in Englewood, food distribution mutual aid, the Chicago local organizing committee of the Black Autonomy Federation and is now the author of three collections of essays (listed at his website) as well as numerous zines.
The majority of this chat has difficult audio quality because it was over prison phones. Happily at the end of the chat, we speak with Hybachi following his recent release, having maxed out his sentence and returned to his organizing and life in the streets of Chicago. There is a fundraiser ongoing to support Hybachi in his post-release life.
To hear Hybachi’s spoken piece On The Powers of Self-Reflection, produced by Slug, check it out at the end of the chat.
There are a few mentions of mental distress and suicide in the chat, just a headsup. Compa LeMar mentions a few names in the episode of people that we’ve had on the show in the past, and we’ll link those episodes where we can (Brianna Peril of IWOC, Sean Swain, Anthony Rayson of South Chicago ABC Zine Distro, True Leap). You can find ways to support Casey Goonan at their support site.
Kevin “Rashid” Johnson posted to Prison Radio a new poem “If There Were No Police”:
If there were no police There would be more peace No more violent deceased The violence would cease This ain’t fantasy It’s fact With their feet on our back The pigs are the ones Holding us back Cuz we Black Flooded our hoods with crack Keep the Brown down Instigating separation Leaving our communities in devastation Gunning our young down The source of fentanyl pills meth They the ones who jack us up All forms of chemical death They the ones who back us up Into corners From city to cell blocks We don’t need cops They’re the real ops So long as they’re here The chaos won’t stop Push them out So we can ALL rise to the top Find common ground Love without bounds How that sound? A new order of things Where people get along And they can fix their wrongs From the old to the young Tall to stout Fuck the police! Get the hell out! Their sole role is control To keep our heads ducked down In a hole Or dotting the landscape Up on poles Looking for the true terrorists The boys in blue There it is They’re the cause of our problems They’ve never solved them Making war on the poor Our lives plain shitty And now they wanna build Whole cop cities Manipulators Instigators Infiltrators Agitators When problems arise They show up way later Inciting gang wars Create crime then kick in doors They’ll entrap you then slap you Down on all fours They’re no one’s friend Officer Friendly only shows up when They’re trying to mend Fences and bridges They done burned Erase the lessons We done learned Pigs can’t be trusted It’s damage control The carrot and stick Their game is old If there were no police We wouldn’t live in fear We’d have security manned By the people who live right here With safe spaces where our kids could play Old folks could stay On their stoops Like back in the day Late into the night Kids having fun Not a worry in sight Not busting guns Beneath street lights If there were no cops The hood would be grand And we could stand United as one Like a colony of ants Where the young have a chance To grow old and wise Not being sold on lies About hero pigs Soldiers moles and spies The people are the heroes Police are zeroes Cut them out of the equation And we’d live near to A real utopia Like the South generations ago Where Black folks didn’t lock doors And everybody tended to each other And meant it When they called you sister and brother Wasn’t no cops in our space Trying to keep us in our place So it’s a lie We can’t keep peace If they weren’t here The conflicts would cease We could live our lives whole And at ease THAT’S how it would be If there were no police
Montez Lee was arrested during the George Floyd Uprising in Minneapolis and sentenced to 10 years on a federal arson charge. convicted of federal arson charges. Sentenced to 10 years he is set to be released in 2029: he also has appeals pending. last August he also has appeals pending. He can be written to at the following address:
Montez Terriel Lee #22429-041 FCI Petersberg Medium P.O. BOX 1000 Petersburg, VA 23804
Mumia Abu Jamal
Birthday: April 24
Mumia is an award winning journalist and was one of the founders of the Black Panther Party chapter in Philadelphia. He has struggled for justice and human rights for people of color since he was at least 14 years old––the age when he joined the Party. In December of 1982, Mumia, who moonlighted by driving a taxi, happened upon police who were beating his brother. During the melee, a police officer was shot and killed. Despite the fact that many people saw someone else shoot and then run away from the scene, Mumia was convicted and sentenced to death by what can only be called a kangaroo court. During the summer of 1995, a death warrant was signed, which sparked one of the most effective organizing efforts in defense of a political prisoner ever. Since that time, Mumia has had his death sentence overturned, but still has a life sentence with no opportunity for parole. More information: freemumia.com
Philadelphia: “Mumia Lives!” Birthday Celebration & Film Screening: Friday, Apr. 24 | 6:30 PM: Friends Center 1501 Cherry St
Smart Communications/PA DOC Mumia Abu Jamal #AM8335 SCI Mahanoy Post Office Box 33028 St Petersburg, Florida 33733
As PADOC is a digital mail scanning state, please use single sided letters; books must be sent to Mumia Abu Jamal #AM8335 / 268 Bricker Road / Bellefonte, PA 16823-1667
Janiis Mathis
Birthday: April 24
Janis Mathis: A former Vaughn 17 defendant. While the state has now given up on its attempts to charge Mathis in relation to the Vaughn uprising, Mathis deserves respect for staying in solidarity with his codefendants throughout the process and refusing to cooperate with the prosecution.
Janiis Mathis #00492275 James T. Vaughn Correctional Center – 1101 PO Box 96777 Las Vegas, NV 89193
Casey Goonan
Birthday: April 24
Casey Goonan is an anarchist/anti-imperialist political prisoner incarcerated for actions carried out in solidarity with Palestinians facing genocide in Gaza and response to the repressive actions against the pro-Palestine student encampments in the United States. In January 2025, Casey pleaded guilty to one count of maliciously damaging or destroying property used in or affecting interstate commerce by means of fire or an explosive for the arson attack on a campus police car. As part of a plea agreement, Goonan took responsibility for the other attacks but pleaded not guilty to the additional charges and was sentenced to 235 months in federal prison. More information: freecasenow.noblogs.org
Casey Goonan #24611 511 FCI Allenwood Medium Post Office Box 2000 White Deer, Pennsylvania 17887
Xinachtli
Birthday: May 12
Xinachtli is an imprisoned Chicano freedom fighter, anarchist, and political prisoner who has been behind bars since 1997. A lifetime of anti-politice brutality and human rights advocacy, he faced harassment by police in west Texas leading to his frameup and 50 year sentence in Texas state prison where he continues to write and fight. After decades years of solitary confinement, this year Xinachtli’s life has been in danger being denied proper healthcare and transferred multiple times, most recently to the Estelle Unit in Huntsville. Letters and photos can be mailed to the following address:
Texas Department of Criminal Justice Alvaro Luna Hernandez #00255735 Post Office Box 660400 Dallas, Texas 75266-0400
Kojo Bomani Sabubu
Birthday: May 27
Kojo Bomani Sabubu is a New Afrikan Prisoner of War imprisoned for over 51 years for actions with the Black Liberation Army. Kojo was arrested with Ojore Lutalo for a bank expropriation and was later convicted for attempting to escape from USP Leavenworth along with Puerto Rican Independentista Oscar López Rivera.
Grailing Brown #39384-066 FMC Butner Post Office Box 1600 Butner, NC 27509
