[imc-sheffield] Fwd: Criminalization of critical academic research and political engagement

[Chris]

Hi

Anna is friend and an Indymedia activist from Berlin who
has two young kids.

Chris

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---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: [Imc-communication] Criminalization of critical academic research
and political	engagement
From:    anna at mail.nadir.org
Date:    Mon, August 20, 2007 7:58 am
To:      imc-communication at lists.indymedia.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

On July 31 my home was raided by German federal police and
my partner Andrej Holm was arrested. Our children had to
endure a dozen armed cops waking them, and us. Andrej is
in prison in Berlin-Moabit since. There are a number of
initiatives protesting against this, including two open
letters to the federal prosecutor by critical researchers.
I'm still not able to write a lot, but there is
information available, most of it on the website of a
group trying to support all who are concerned:
http://einstellung.so36.net/en for english, and a littel
in french here http://einstellung.so36.net/fr

A summary: Three people were arrested while alledgedly
trying to set fire to four army vehicles. Four other
people are assumed to be members of a terrorist
organisation called 'militant group' and were observed
since last September at least - Andrej being one of them
(this included tapping of phones also of family members
and friends, email observation of everybody close etc
etc).  Since he met one of the other three twice this year
in so-called conspiratory cirsumstances all seven are now
suspected to be 'terrorists' - even though it is unclear
why they met and what was talked about. Current state is
that the three who are said to have set fire to the army
vehicles and Andrej are imprisoned. The reasons given by
the federal prosecutor why Andrej and the three others are
suspected to be 'terrorists' are extremely incredible:
researching gentrification, access to libraries and
intellectual ability are explicitely mentioned as reasons
in the arrest warrant. Their treatment in prison is
considered similar to treatment of members of RAF in the
dark ages of the 70s, according to the lawyers.

The open letters have already been signed by many
international and German academics and activists. I'll
paste the text below. Please consider signing and/or
raising public awareness in any possible way. A new
lawyer's decision about the continuation of imprisonment
is expected for August 24th, so anything that raises
attention before that date may be helpful.

Anna

I'm at the moment away from computers most of the time.
You can contact einstellung[at]so36.net for more
information. There will be an English language newsletter
list soon.

==============

http://einstellung.so36.net/en/openletter


Open letter to the Generalbundesanwaltschaft against the
criminalization of critical academic research and
political engagement

On 31st July 2007 the flats and workplaces of Dr. Andrej
Holm and Dr.  Matthias B., as well as of two other
persons, were searched by the police. Dr. Andrej Holm was
arrested, flown by helicopter to the German Federal Court
in Karlsruhe and brought before the custodial judge. Since
then he has been held in pretrial confinement in a Berlin
jail. All four people have been charged with
“membership in a terrorist association according to §
129a StGB” (German Penal Code, section 7 on ‘Crimes
against Public Order’). They are alleged to be members
of a so-called ‘militante gruppe’ (mg). The text of
the search warrant revealed that preliminary proceedings
against these four people have been going on since
September 2006 and that the four had since been under
constant surveillance.

A few hours before the house searches, Florian L., Oliver
R. und Axel H. were arrested in the Brandenburg region and
accused of attempted arson on four vehicles of the German
Federal Army. Andrej Holm is alleged to have met one of
these three persons on two occasions in the first half of
2007 in supposedly “conspiratorial circumstances”.

The Federal Prosecutor (Bundesanwaltschaft) therefore
assumes that the four above mentioned persons as well as
the three individuals arrested in Brandenburg are members
of a “militant group,” and is thus investigating all
seven on account of suspected “membership in a
terrorist association” according to §129a StGB.
According to the arrest warrant against Andrej Holm, the
charge made against the above mentioned four individuals
is presently justified on the following grounds, in the
order that the federal prosecutor has listed them:

- Dr. Matthias B. is alleged to have used, in his academic
  publications, “phrases and key words” which are
  also used by the ‘militante gruppe’;

- As political scientist holding a PhD, Matthias B. is
  seen to be intellectually capable to “author the
  sophisticated texts of the ‘militante gruppe’
  (mg)”.  Additionally, “as employee in a research
  institute he has access to libraries which he can use
  inconspicuously in order to do the research necessary to
  the drafting of texts of the ‘militante
  gruppe’”;

- Another accused individual is said to have met with
  suspects in a conspiratorial manner: “meetings were
  regularly arranged without, however, mentioning place,
  time and content of the meetings”; furthermore, he is
  said to have been active in the “extreme left-wing
  scene”;

- In the case of a third accused individual, an address
  book was found which included the names and addresses of
  the other three accused;

- Dr. Andrej H., who works as urban sociologist, is
  claimed to have close contacts with all three
  individuals who have been charged but still remain free;

- Dr. Andrej H. is alleged to have been active in the
  “resistance mounted by the extreme left-wing scene
  against the World Economic Summit of 2007 in
  Heiligendamm”;

- The fact that he – allegedly intentionally -- did not
  take his mobile phone with him to a meeting is
  considered as “conspiratorial behavior”.

Andrej H., as well as Florian L., Oliver R. und Axel H.,
are detained since 1st August 2007 in Berlin-Moabit under
very strict conditions: they are locked in solitary
confinement 23 hours a day and are allowed only one hour
of courtyard walk. Visits are limited to a total of half
an hour every two weeks.  Contacts, including contacts
with lawyers, are allowed only through separation panes,
including contact with their lawyers. The mail of the
defense is checked.

The charges described in the arrest warrants reveal a
construct based on very dubious reasoning by analogy. The
reasoning involves four basic hypotheses, none of which
the Federal High Court could substantiate with any
concrete evidence, but through their combination they are
to leave the impression of a “terrorist
association”. The social scientists, because of their
academic research activity, their intellectual capacities
and their access to libraries, are said to be the brains
of the alleged “terrorist organization”.

For, according to the Federal prosecutor, an association
called “militante gruppe” is said to use the same
concepts as the accused social scientists. As evidence for
this reasoning, the concept of “gentrification” is
named - one of the key research themes of Andrej Holm und
Matthias B. in past years, about which they have published
internationally. They have not limited their research
findings to an ivory tower, but have made their expertise
available to citizens’ initiatives and tenants’
organizations. This is how critical social scientists are
constructed as intellectual gang leaders.

Since Andrej Holm has friends, relatives and colleagues,
they now also are suspect to be “terrorists”,
because they know Andrej. Another accused individual was
blamed for having the names of Andrej Holm and of two
others charged (but not jailed) in his address book. Since
the latter are also deemed to be “terrorists” –
this is how “guilt by association” is established.

Paragraph § 129a, introduced in Germany in 1976, makes it
possible for our colleagues to be criminalized as
“terrorists”. This is how, through § 129a, the
existence of a “terrorist group” is claimed.

Through these constructs, every academic research activity
and political work is presented as potentially criminal
– in particular when politically engaged colleagues who
intervene in social struggles are concerned. This is how
critical research, in particular research linked with
political engagement, is turned into ideological ring
leadership and “terrorism”.

We demand that the Federal Prosecutor (Bundesanwaltschaft)
immediately suspend the § 129a-proceedings against all
parties concerned and to release Andrej Holm and the other
imprisoned from jail at once. We strongly reject the
outrageous accusation that the academic research
activities and the political engagement of Andrej Holm are
to be viewed as complicity in an alleged “terrorist
association”. No arrest warrant can be deduced from the
academic research and political work of Andrej Holm. The
Federal Prosecutor, through applying Article § 129, is
threatening the freedom of research and teaching as well
as social-political engagement.

Initial signatures by:

Dr. Manuel Aalbers (Columbia University, New York), Prof. Dr. Rowland
Atkinson
(University of Tasmania, Australien), Prof. Dr. Lawrence D. Berg (Canada
Research Chair in Human Rights, Diversity & Identity, University of British
Columbia), Prof. Dr. Neil Brenner (New York University, Sociology), Prof. Dr.
Craig Calhoun (President, Social Science Research Council, and University
Professor, Sociology, NYU), Prof. Dr. Mike Davis (Prof. of Urban History,
Irvine/USA), Dr. Michael Dear (Professor of Geography at the University of
Southern California/Los Angeles), Prof. Dr. Michael Edwards (The Bartlett
Centre for Architecture and Planning, UCL, London), Prof. Dr. Geoff Ely
(University of Michigan, Karl Pohrt Distinguished University Professor),
Prof.
Dr. John Friedmann (University of California, Los Angeles), Prof. Dr. Herbert
Gans (Columbia University, New York), Prof. Dr. Alan Harding (University of
Salford, UK), Prof. Dr. Michael Harloe (University of Salford,
Vice-President),
Prof. Dr. David Harvey (Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Graduate
Center
of the City University of New York, New York), Prof. Dr. Andreas Huyssen
(Villard Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Columbia
University), Prof. Dr. Martin Jay (Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professor of
History,
University of California Berkeley), Prof. Dr. Bob Jessop (Lancaster
Universtiy), Prof. Dr. Roger Keil (York University, Toronto, Canada),
Prof. Dr.
Rianne Mahon (Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada), Prof. Dr. Peter Marcuse
(Columbia University, New York), Prof. Dr. Margit Mayer (Freie Universität
Berlin), Prof. Dr. Frances Fox Piven (President of the American Sociological
Association, Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology, City
University New York), Prof. Dr. Andrew Ross (New York University, New York),
Prof. Dr. Saskia Sassen (Columbia University, New York, and London School of
Economics) Prof. Dr. Andrew Sayer (Lancaster University, Sociology), Prof.
Dr.
Richard Sennett (Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics,
Bemis Professor of Social Sciences at MIT, Professor of the Humanities at New
York University), Prof. Dr. William Sewell (The Frank P. Hixon Distinguished
Service Professor of Political Science and History Emeritus, University of
Chicago), Prof. Dr. Neil Smith (Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and
Geography, Director of the Center for Place Culture and Politics, Graduate
Center of the City University of New York), Prof. Dr. Michael Storper
(Centennial Professor of Economic Geography, London School of Economics, and
Professor of Economic Sociology, Science Po, Paris), Prof. Dr. Erik
Swyngedouw
(University of Manchester, UK), , Prof. Dr. Peter J. Taylor (Loughborough
University, UK), Prof. Dr. John Urry (Lancaster University, Sociology), Dr.
Jennifer Wolch (Professor of Geography at the University of Southern
California/Los Angeles).

Sihn here:
http://www.policing-crowds.org/petition.html

==========================


http://www.freeandrej.net.ms/

To Monika Harms
Federal Prosecutor of the Federal Court of Justice

Brauerstraße 30

76135 Karlsruhe

On August 1, 2007, the socially committed Berlin
sociologist, Dr. Andrej H., was detained upon the order of
the office of the federal prosecutor. The order followed a
police search of his residence and the residences of three
other academics. All three are suspected of being members
of an organization called "militante gruppe" ("militant
group"/mg), which is being investigated by the federal
prosecutor's office in accordance with §129a StGB on
suspicion of the formation of a terrorist association. The
arrest warrant issued for Dr.  Andrej H. is justified by
two "conspiratorial” meetings he is said to have had
several months ago with an individual taken custody during
an arson attempt on federal armed forces vehicles in
"Brandenburg an der Havel" in late July.

We strictly oppose the use of violence as endorsed and
practiced by the "militant group." At the same time,
however, we strongly object to the notion of intellectual
complicity adopted by the federal prosecutor's office in
its investigation. According to Dr. Andrej H.'s legal
representative, accusations concerning his membership in a
terrorist organization have been made on the following
grounds:

- the office of the federal prosecutor possesses no
  information concerning the nature of Dr. Andrej H.'s
  meeting with the suspected arsonists; their suspected
  participation in the "militant group" is based on the
  fact of the meetings alone;

- according to the federal prosecutor's office, Dr. Andrej
  H.'s involvement in the terrorist group can be deduced
  from his intellectual engagement in subjects broached in
  the writings of the "mg"; a 1998 publication of Dr.
  Andrej H.  contained various "key words and phrases"
  also found in the texts of the "militant group"
  (including, for example, the term "gentrification"
  widely used in urban sociology),

- the suspect, with a doctoral degree in political science
  and, “as an employee of a research institute, had
  access to libraries where he could inconspicuously do
  the research required for the founding of a militant
  group".

Such arguments allow any piece of academic writing to be
potentially incriminating. The rationale followed by the
federal prosecutor's office is a direct threat to all
those who pursue and publicly defend critical studies in
the sciences, humanities, arts, and media. Critical
research, even in combination with social and political
activism, cannot be labeled terrorist activity.

We hereby petition the office of the federal prosecutor to
drop the charge that Dr. Andrej H.'s academic writings
constituted intellectual participation in a terrorist
organization. Nothing in Dr. Andrej H.'s scholarly work
justifies an arrest warrant. This line of reasoning
represents a fundamental threat to intellectual and
academic freedom.

Likewise, we hereby petition for an immediate cease in the
investigation of Dr.  Andrej H. in accordance with § 129a
StGB, which calls for an especially harsh detention and
restrictions in legal defense.

August 9, 2007


Sign here:
http://www.gatdesign.de/andrej/petitionlist_e.php
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IMC-communication at lists.indymedia.org
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