Austria continues to repress animal activists

October 27, 2008

Just a matter of time for us, I'm sure. Sickening.

The Austrian supreme court delivered its verdict on the appeals of theremand prisoners against their remand hold. The verdict says that theremand prison was justified by the evidence. The supreme court saysthat there clearly is a big criminal organization active and that those,who were on remand, must be suspected to be part of it.

The supreme court explicitly stated:- talking on a closed email list provides the infrastructure of thecriminal organization- encrypting emails and talking on anonymous phones shows criminal intent- that VGT had campaign coordinators in different provinces shows thehierarchical structure of the criminal organization- to threaten a company even in a polite way with a legal campaignwhile in the past criminal actions have happened in other campaignsagainst other companies is already blackmail- that a company stops selling fur after being approached by animalrights groups points to criminal activity because no company would dothat without feeling criminally intimidated, i.e. terrorizedSome lawyers consider it impossible after this supreme court ruling thatanyone being eventually charged with §278a will be found not guilty. Theverdict supposedly is the final decision that there indeed is

one singlebig criminal organization in Austria , which is responsible for each andevery criminal action ever that could be considered animal related.

At the moment, 27 people face prison sentences of up to 5 years!And should they be found guilty, companies could sue them for damagesand VGT could be dissolved.

In the meantime, another police raid has taken place in Austria, against a

person solely having been on four demo marches in her life and supporting

The Association Against Animal Factories (VGT) with donations and no

other ar activism, was interrogated by police, intimidated and had her house

searched and her computer and laptop confiscated.