Day 56 Hungerstrike of Giannis Michailidis – State torture Continues

By ATHENS INDYMEDIA and thecollective Via Anarquía

UPDATE ON THE STATE OF HEALTH OF COMRADE GIANNIS MICHAILIDIS, ON HUNGER STRIKE, DAY 46 (JULY 8).

Release Council will not meet until 25 July, the 65th day of our comrade’s hunger strike.

The health condition of hunger striker Giannis Michailidis, who is on his 46th day of hunger strike and is under guard at Lamia General Hospital, is at an extremely critical point.

• see also: Immediate freedom for Giannis Michailidis, on hunger strike near 50 days!
• Greece: Giannis Michailidis – I Announce a hunger strike for my release
• Freedom for anarchist Giannis Michailidis – Gathering in Athens [Greece]

First of all, I would like to emphasize and make it known that although it is legally foreseen for any prisoner to appoint his personal doctor to examine and monitor him, in this case and despite the relevant permission, I was not allowed to have a clinical examination in person, our communication was between bars and in the presence of the police officer right next to me, thus abolishing medical confidentiality since he was listening and watching all our communication.

Giannis white blood cell count has dropped so far below the lower normal limit that it now poses a threat to the striker. Leukopenia leads to severe immunodeficiency. Platelets are also very low and Thrombocytopenia can cause severe and threatening bleeding. There is anaemia that is getting worse, disturbance in liver function, hypocalcaemia.

Clinically, the striker now reports that at the slightest effort he feels acute precordial pain (signs of myocardial ischaemia) and severe pain in the left kidney. The treating doctors have informed him that he is now at risk of severe osteoporosis.

Giannis extremely difficult situation and his struggle are compounded by the conditions of his detention. Completely isolated in a room – cell with four walls. No window, except for a small skylight on one side, and no television (although the psychiatric examination he underwent when he was admitted to hospital was free of pathological findings).

In other words, he is physically and sensorially isolated, without the slightest constant support, supervision and care from his family, his lawyer and his doctor. All this is harmful to the striker, causing him additional stress and contributing to the destabilisation of his body, as it is a kind of torture.

And the paradox is that all this is forced to be done in this torturous way, in the hospital setting, where ethically and morally the rules of hospitalization must not be violated and all patients must be provided with decent conditions.

I, from my part, will once again stress the seriousness of the health of the striker Giannis Michailidis, calling on every competent body to provide an immediate solution in order to avoid any fatal outcome of the strike.

The personal physician of Giannis Michailidis Pantelia Vergopoulou – director of the NHS

SOURCE: ATHENS INDYMEDIA

JULY 25, NEW DATE TO REVIEW THE RELEASE OF COMRADE GIANNIS MICHAILIDIS.

Today, on Tuesday 12/7, the council for the release of the anarchist hunger striker Giannis Michailidis, who has been on hunger strike since 23/5, was set. The prosecutor’s proposal was rejected, so now it remains for the Lamia council to meet on 25 July, the 65th day of our comrade’s hunger strike.

There is no doubt. The judicial mob is torturing and attempting to completely annihilate our comrade. Giannis has been entitled to his release for months now, as he fulfils the typically conditions, but he is being held as a «preventive» prisoner because the bastards of the state-judicial complex consider that «there is a risk of him committing new offences». They now want to cause irreparable damage to the striker’s health, with irreparable problems that will accompany him throughout his life.

We have no illusions. The justice that has released murderers and rapists in recent days (Ep. Korkoneas, P. Filippidisis, A. Hortarias, Leventis) is class-based. It is the voice of the state and capitalist society, which fears people like Giannis, because in their face, they carry the dignity and intransigence of a man who struggles and always holds his head high. In their face, they carry the prospect of the revolutionary overthrow of the world, of wage slavery and power.

We remain wholeheartedly at our comrade’s side until the end.

GIANNIS STAY STRONG UNTIL FREEDOM

Strength to the hunger strikers Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis (from 6/7), Ntinos Giagztoglou (7/7) who are in solidarity with G. Michailidis

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE FREEDOM OF ONE IS A STRUGGLE FOR THE FREEDOM OF ALL

IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF THE ANARCHIST GIANNIS MICHAILIDIS

EVERYONE AND EVERYBODY AT THE 5th Pan-Hellenic SOLIDARITY MARCH WITH THE ANARCHIST HUNGER STRIKER GIANNIS MICHAILIDIS THURSDAY 14/7 at 19:00, SYNTAGMA

EVERYONE AT THE LAMIA COURT OF APPEAL ON MONDAY 25 JULY

SOURCE: ATHENS INDYMEDIA