It has been 4 weeks since the day my pre-trial detention was decided and now life in Korydallos prison has become my new daily life. In the following lines I would like to share the events before and after my arrest as well as some things about my situation.
A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE EVENTS
Fifteen days before my arrest, my colleague and now co-defendant Thanos Hatziangelou, informing me that he had Covid-19 symptoms, asked me to fill in his shift, which I did. After a discussion with him, I decided to give him the house I was renting in Alkinoou Street to quarantine (isolation), as I could stay for a while at my partner’s house. This proposal was made for three reasons: First, for the precaution of his partner. Secondly, to safeguard the smooth running of the cooperative business we maintain, as his partner is a member of it. Thirdly, for my own personal precaution, as, although fully vaccinated, I come into contact with people I would like to protect.
For the next fifteen days, after the tests had diagnosed T.H. positive for the Covid-19 virus, I had no contact with him. I did not even once pass by the house that I had given him, and this can be understood by everyone since according to the surveillance of the anti-terrorist squad, both in the house and on T.H., I did not appear anywhere. The day before my arrest and after TH came out negative on Covid-19, he passed by the shop where I saw him for the first time in 15 days. He asked if he could stay at my house for another 2-3 days, which I agreed to, since as I said before I was able to stay at my partner’s house.
So that brings us to the day of my arrest. On the afternoon of February 8th, coming out of my partner’s house (where I was staying), I was brought in by officers of the anti-terrorist squad. They lead me to the General Police Directorate of Thessaloniki (GADTH) and after a few hours they announce my arrest. After an evening hooded and tied up in the offices of the anti-terrorist police, I was taken to the courts, where in the detention cells I met for the first time my co-defendant C. Voulgari. I even asked her through the bars to lower her protective mask a little, so that I might recognise her, even if only briefly, which I failed to do, as I had never seen her in my life. The rest is history, as I am in custody in Korydallos for a case I had absolutely no involvement in.
I have never put a political label on myself and I do not intend to do so now in order to reap any political goodwill or sympathy. I have never declared myself an anarchist, I have never declared myself a revolutionary, I would never declare myself an armed rebel. However, I am a politically minded person and I have never been afraid to speak my mind, I have never stopped shouting for what is right. From 2008 to 2010, when I left abroad to work, I participated in open assemblies in my neighbourhood trying to improve the common living standards together with my fellow citizens. Since the end of 2015, when I returned to Greece, I satisfied my need for sport through a self-organized group that opposes modern sport, which revolves around business, money and dope. I have also consciously chosen, for livelihood reasons, to join a workers’ cooperative, thus advocating a different way of working against the working Middle Ages. When the state decided to close everything because of the Covid-19 pandemic, not caring about the fate of the homeless, the destitute, the addicted and families with little or no income, I organized myself in cooking and meal distribution structures, so that I could help those in need.
Perhaps this is now enough for someone to be the convenient third party that triggers article 187a on terrorist organisation and for a fake case to be built, without my name being mentioned anywhere in the statements of the anti-terrorist police. I have never been afraid to speak my mind and cry for justice, nor do I intend to stop now. A right that the facts themselves show is not in the hands of those who keep me imprisoned, without evidence, fulfilling their own political agendas.
Strength to those who fight for justice.
Strength to my co-defendants, who from their own point of view are each fighting a separate battle. Panos Kalaitzis
Korydallos Prison, Ward D
13/03/2022
