Zaragoza, Spain: Update from the Family of Imprisoned Anti-Fascist Comrade Rodrigo Lanza

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For all the people who are calling us to know how we are and support us.

This Saturday 17/12/ 17, I went to see Rodrigo in prison. I know that he is in isolation. Preventive isolation, without a legal trial because the media trial was immediate and due to the ‘social alarm’ they put him in the first degree. What does that mean? That he will stay in a cell with barely enough room for the bed. An empty cell. Alone. He can go out for 2 hours in a square courtyard, as big as a small room where you cannot see the sky. He is alone.

They say they want to protect him. But the Istanbul Protocol establishes that penitentiary isolation can be a method of torture and international bodies establish isolation only as a sanction and for a maximum of 14 days, because it can cause irreversible psychological damage. They want to keep Rodrigo there for a minimum of 6 months.

When I went to see him they brought him handcuffed, with two officials in front and two behind. I saw him through glass. As far as it is possible in such a difficult situation, he is fine. We looked at each other for a long time and talked about what all this means. He told me what had happened and I told him about the media distortion that is being created. This is something serious, because despite what they can investigate it is difficult to change anything because there will be a lot of social pressure. The judge based the accusation on what the media have written and has not taken into consideration at all the witness statements of those who showed up.

The media boom wouldn’t have existed if he was not Rodrigo and wouldn’t have been so great if we had been in another political context. The press has not only condemned Rodrigo with fury before reading the versions of the witnesses, and his own, but has also condemned us to an attack by Nazis that is forcing us to live in hiding.

We have received countless threats to Rodrigo and myself on our FB pages, twitter, etc. Now I cannot go out into the street for fear of being recognized and attacked. They published my address and have published images of my family in the social networks. Now we fear for our lives because I know that they attacked Rodrigo with a knife and I know that these people who are making threats are dangerous. I can’t stop thinking that my son could be dead, but he defended himself and is alive.

I thank so much the many, many people who have shown us support and affection, and those who have defended us.

The truth comes out sooner or later and I’m sure it will happen.

A huge hug,

Mariana

(via Desmontaje4f and Round Robin, translated by Act For Freedom Now!)

via insurrectionnewsworldwide.com