Revolutionary Struggle guerrilla, Pola Roupa, has been released from custody in Greece.
Revolutionary Struggle was at the forefront of the anarchist communist struggle in the internationalist revolutionary movement. They were an organization who acted clearly, methodically, and intelligently in response to the onslaught of capitalism in the unipolar moment, and the repression they faced had local and global ramifications.
Pola was granted conditional release due to having a young child, but her partner and fellow revolutionary Nikos Maziotis remains in enemy captivity.
Below we will publish Pola’s statement since her release:
“November 17, 2023. 50 years since the 1973 Polytechnic uprising and I was released.
After 7 years of consecutive imprisonment (arrested on 5/1/2017), 8.5 years together with pre-trial detention (arrested on 10/4/2010) and 13.5 years in total, the sentence I served for my participation in the Revolutionary Struggle , I was released from prison. The symbolism of the day was strong as this year’s November 17 marks the 50th anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising of 1973. On such a day, everyone remembers the dead of the Polytechnic but also all those who fell in the struggle for freedom.
In my mind, such a day was dominated by the memory of our dead comrade in the Revolutionary Struggle of Lambros Foudas. But in my thoughts is also comrade Nikos Maziotis who, despite the fact that he has served 11 years of ‘closed’ prison and 14 years of mixed prison – a period of time that is too long for a 20-year sentence -, the judicial councils of Lamia refuse to release him.
It is now clear that a unique status of exception has been imposed on Nikos Maziotis as no prisoner with similar cases (charges based on 187 A) and with similar sentences (that is, there is no life sentence) has remained in prison for so long long time.
This exemption regime based on political criteria and motives and which in practice nullifies the institution of parole which according to the law is mandatory and not ‘gratuitous,’ is not left to the personal will of the respective judge, this exemption regime it has to stop. In addition to the flagrant violation of his rights, this special exemption regime is reminiscent of a junta-style treatment of a political prisoner.
After spending so many years in prisons, it would be a lie if I said that I am not thinking about the many dozens of female prisoners we lived together. On the occasion of the – I believe by mistake – publications that ‘found’ that I was released from prison because I am the mother of a minor child, I have to say that in addition to the fact that I have already served the years of detention required for parole, there is no provision by no penal code discharge a prisoner on parole because she is the mother of a minor child. Only article 105 of the Criminal Code of 2019 provides for home detention for mothers with children under the age of 8, a measure that is not particularly applied.
Having lived with women for many years, I know that most of them have a central role as caregivers for people such as minor children, the elderly, the sick, the disabled, and their prolonged detention has a terrible impact on the lives of those who live alone. without their help.
Conditional dismissal for mothers of minors and for women who take care of categories of people such as those I mentioned above, is a provision whose absence from the criminal code demonstrates that the legislators do not take into account the pivotal position of women-caretakers in social life . It is a shortage that often costs lives.”