Anti-Terror Fight in Germany

When I was held in solitary confinement in Stuttgart-Stammheim, I got to know Mohamed D.; he was held in the security wing in the neighbouring cell and we talked from window to window. Since then there has been a loose correspondence; he suffers somewhat from isolation.

For some months a trial has been running against him for supposed membership in a terrorist group, the centerpiece - if one will say so - is a chief witness who for his various charges recieved a lenient sentence and who now appears as chief witness of the federal attorney-general.

As Mohamed D., as a non-German, recieves no allowance at all, I tried to get 20 Euro and a few stamps to him; all nicely official, by post. The attempt got no further! Provincial superior court judge Fleischer informed me, greeting me 'respectfully' on the 27th May 04, that Herr D. was on a U.N. sanctions list, which by ordinances of the 27th May 02 and 29th September 03 had been taken over by the E.U. It were forbidden to place monies at the disposal of 'natural and juridical subjects, groups or organisations' standing on the list. And so the Judge from Duesseldorf sent me back the 20 Euro and the stamps by return post.

One may well imagine what terrorist activities Herr D. might have provoked with the 20 Euro and the stamps; the existence of Europe might be threatened! But let's leave aside sarcasm. It is cynical and revealing when judicially, or on the part of the European Union, a prisoner without means, who moreover, is staying in strict isolation, is forbidden to recieve a few Euros and stamps to at least buy something to eat or some shower gel from the prison store.

In their self declared 'war against terror' the arm of the U.S.A. and the E.U. reaches so far as into German jail cells!