Update re: Bogus Austrian raid on Activists

[Guest guest]

This made me so angry I am crying. Who's next? May 27, 2008 Finally, the below Press Release was circulated today about the arrests. Press Release, 28 May, 2008:Austria. Indefensible Attack against Animal WelfareMovementTwenty-four House and Office Raids, Ten Arrests, NoConcrete Charges, and a String of Human RightsViolations result in Seven People on HungerstrikeThe morning of 21st May saw the first massive raidfrom police against the animal welfare movementthrough out the whole of Austria.A total of twenty-four homes and offices of animalwelfare activists and organisations were raided bypolice at 6.15 a.m., Harald Balluch, managing directorof the VGT (Association against Animal Factories)described the scene in his flat. “I awoke to the soundof the door being broken in,

immediately a group ofarmed and masked people surrounded my bed where mygirlfriend and I were sleeping and aimed their weaponsat us. They screamed at me that they would shoot me inthe head if I moved. We have two elderly rescued dogs,who were brutally manhandled. As you can imagine, allfour of us were absolutely terrified. Seven organisations have been affected and ten peoplewere taken into custody. Police have justified thisaction by saying that the campaigners are suspected ofbelonging to a criminal organisation §278a of theAustrian criminal code. However, after a week ofkeeping these people in custody no charges have beenmade against them.Improvements for animals achieved by the Austrianmovement have set a world wide example The animal welfare movement in Austria has achieved agreat deal for animals in the last years. The successlist includes a ban on fur farms, a ban on wildanimals

in circuses, a ban on caged rabbits used formeat and a ban on battery cages for chickens. Austriais regarded world wide as one of, if not the mostimpressive country in terms of animal welfare.Thesesuccesses are entirely down to researching theconditions that animals are kept in, giving the publicaccess to this information and political lobbying. Harald Balluch distances himself and the VGT from anyillegal activities.†This police action is designed todiscredit the work being done for animals. Theintention is to damage the reputation of animalcampaigners and campaign work. Through the policeraids, our office along with four others, has beenbrought to a stand still. Our computers with ourcomplete data bank have been taken along with all ourmobile phones and years of research material. We haveno possibility of contacting our supporters. Our phoneand fax lines were also out of order for sometimeafter the

raid making contact with media impossible.â€A String of human rights violationsLawyers representing the ten campaigners have issuedformal complaints against the police concerning astring of human rights violations. These includedetention without being charged for all those onremand, unnecessary force used by the police duringthe house raids and DNA samples being taken from twoof the detainees against their will using force.Hunger StrikeIn an effort to protest against this injustice, sevenof the people on remand are on hunger strike. Theirrequest for diluted fruit juice was denied, so theyare just drinking water Martin Balluch’s family and girlfriend, who wereallowed to visit him for the first time on 27th May,on the seventh day after his arrest, commented afterseeing Martin “We were absolutely horrified byMartin’s condition. This is now his seventh day onhunger strike and

his movements and speech areextremely weak and slow.†Please show your support for human rights by writingprotest mails to the following Austrian politicians.These random acts of police repression could happen toany one of us, who cares about how animals aretreated:Home Secretary; Dr Günter Platter ministerbuero@ bmi.gv.atMinister for Justice; Frau Dr Berger minister.justiz@ bmi.gv.atFederal President; Dr Heinz Fischer heinz.fischer@ hofburg.atFederal Chancellor; Dr Alfred Gusenbaueralfred.gusenbauer@ bka.gv.at ++++++++++++ + Earth Liberation Prisoners Support NetworkBM Box 2407LondonWC1N 3XXEnglandwww.spiritoffreedom .org.uk http://pets.Fortheanimals7/join http://www.myspace.com/fortheanimals7