On 21st June the last person imprisoned following the Quai de Valmy case appeared before a sentencing-execution judge regarding a request for reduction of the sentence.
This person has been held for almost a year and a half and the release date is set for February 2019. The hearing took place 9 months after the request was submitted, even if the deadline established by law is 4 months. The prison administration and the prosecutor expressed opposition to his release, on the basis of his stubborn silence concerning the events. The judge decided to issue a verdict on 11th July.
Apparently it was not sufficient to reach a decision with three-weeks’ delay, three weeks of waiting and hoping. On 11th July silence from the judge, and on12th we learned that the decision had been postponed to ‘the beginning of next week’. These constant setbacks, be they deliberate or due to the negligence of those who hold others’ freedom in their hands, wreck prisoners’ and their loved ones’ nerves. They lead to impotence generated by the situation of being trapped in the prison machine. Considering that many prisoners don’t know the law at all, don’t have anybody and some don’t even know French, we can imagine how many find themselves completely in the hands of prison arbitrariness. We’ve already seen people remain inside even if they had been eligible for release for several days, without getting the chance to understand what was going on.
As the prison administration and the State are trying to break prisoners and their loved ones with large and small arbitrary and abusive measures, let’s put a stick in the wheel of the all too well functioning system.
Any day spent in jail is a day too many!
Let’s destroy all prisons!
Update on 17th July: the sentencing-execution judge rejected the request for release.
[Translated from Italian by Act for Freedom Now!]
