Received 29/03/2020
Italy: Updates on Manu, Stecco, Juan and Sasha (February – March 2020)
Stecco has been under house arrest since 11th February, with the main restriction that he is forbidden to see anyone with previous convictions. Manu has been under house arrest since 5th March, he has full restrictions and can only see the family members living in the house. Sasha is free, she was released from all the measures of compulsory residence and night curfew!
Always alongside burning hearts! All free!
Juan was arrested in May 2019 after about two years on the run and is currently locked up in the AS2 unit of the prison of Terni for a total sentence of a dozen years. In a recent appeal trial he was sentenced to 2 years 6 months for carrying fake documents and a knife, is also being investigated for an attack on the League premises in Treviso, which took place in August 2018. Given that the evidence against him in relation to the action is allegedly a “partial DNA trace”, the prosecutor had demanded that the comrade be subjected to “mucus sample taking from the oral cavity”. As Juan refused to give his DNA, the prosecutor demanded and obtained authorization from the investigating judge for coercive sample taking, “through physical restraint for the time strictly necessary for the coercive sample taking”. This is due to take place in the presence of a lawyer on 4th March. Juan tells us he will oppose resistance (“a pacific one, given the disproportion of forces”) as a question of principle, and that he’ll tell us how it goes in a communique, so that it can also be useful to others.
Between his refusal of sample taking and the authorization to proceed with a coercive one, something happened that Juan wants to make public. On 27th February 2020 at 9am the guards searched the unit. A comb was secretly taken from Juan’s cell and replaced with an identical one, except for a few details (no residue of hair in it and a brighter colour), which the comrade noted and is absolutely sure about. Juan threw the comb on the guard’s desk so that the latter will have to write the usual report on the matter.
On forced DNA collection in Juan in Terni prison (March 2020)
As he had announced to us in a previous letter, on March 4th, 2020, in the prison of Terni, the forced DNA collection took place against Juan. Following his previous refusal, the public prosecutor had requested and obtained permission from the GIP [Giudice per le Indagini Preliminari, a pre-trial judge] of Venice to proceed “by means of physical coercion”. On March 4th, in addition to the lawyer, a doctor, two experts (presumably from RIS of Parma [RIS is the “Scientific investigations department” of Carabinieri]), two graduates and three prison guards were present. Juan made a passive, symbolic resistance, sitting on the floor, lowering his head and refusing on principle to open the lock. He was lifted of weight by the guards, who opened his mouth forcibly while the experts put the swab in his mouth. A protocol coercion.
