'Human Smuggling/Schlepperei'-Trial ! Call for solidarity!

In Summer of 2013 flats were searched by the police in Vienna and 8
persons got arrested. They are accused of being part of a criminal
'human smuggling'-association. The concerned persons, some of them were active in the Refugee Movement, are being held in pre-trial custody since the beginning of August because of these absurd accusations. The investigations were lead by two special commities (SOKOs), who are active since the beginning of 2013 in 'the fight agains human smuggling'. They were using common methods of surveillance, which are already well-known out of other cases where political activism was criminalized: phone tapping, analysis of phone stock data, observation and house searches.

The trial starts at March 17th 2014 in Wiener Neustadt and will last
(expectedly) until the end of April. The construct of a criminal
association, nothing else than a fiction of public authorities, is even increasing the maximum penalty significantly. In the case of conviction concerning 'commercial humman smuggling in frame of a criminal association' the persons are threatend with imprisonment up to ten years.

The paragraf 'human smuggling' (§114 FPG) criminalizes the only
possibility, that lots of people have, to cross borders, namely the one with help from supporting persons, who are defamed as 'smugglers'.
The problem is not so-called 'Schlepperei/human smuggling', but the
borders and the restriction of freedom of movement to only a small
privileged group.

Migration has to be de-criminalized!
Solidarity with all prisoners!
Solidarity with all who resist the border regime!

There are lots of reasons for monitoring the trial solidary, doing acts of solidarity and money donations. The moment of the arrests in July, shortly after the deportation of eight Refugee activists to Pakistan provoked protests, leads to a strategy of public authorities to destroy the Refugee-protests with the media image of 'cruel human smugglers'.
Besides this lawyers are reporting of loads of files full of generalized statements and assumptions, as well as intensive observation over months. The pre-trial custody is being justified since July with the racist argumentation of 'lack of integration'.

The support and the lawyers cost lots of money.
Contact details of the supporting structures:

solidarityagainstrepression (at) riseup.net


Upcoming dates:

* 12.03.2014 Info-Evening concerning the actual situation @ W23
(Wipplingerstr. 23 1010 Wien), Start: 8 p.m.

* 17.03.2014 First day of trial @ Landesgericht Wiener Neustadt:
Manifestation in front of court (court entrance), Maria Theresien-Ring
5, 2700 Wiener Neustadt, 9 a.m. (collective meeting point to go there
from Vienna: 7:45 a.m. train station Meidling, platform 5)

* 18.03.2014 5 p.m.: Day of (political) prisoners : Demonstration in
Vienna, meeting point @ Metro-Station Schottentor

information about the dates of trial, as well as regular updates from
the court room:

http://solidarityagainstrepression.noblogs.org

no border no nation support migration
fire and flames for the authorities of repression