A gathering in front of the Italian consulate in Barcelona was held on January 24th, 2007, in solidarity with anarchist prisoner Juan Antonio Sorroche Fernandez, who was arrested on December 21st, 2006, in Girona by the Guardia Civil (Spanish military police) in cooperation with the Italian Carabinieri (Italian paramilitary police). Juan was searched and detained as part of an investigation based on article 270bis, "subversive association for the purpose of terrorism", under the Italian legal code. Juan was imprisoned in the anti-terror prison regime of Soto del Real Apdo, Madrid. Now he has been extradited back to Italy. It seems that the Italian state is taking the example from the Spanish state and has began to apply the systematic dispersion of all dissident prisoners. Therefore Juan has been sent to a jail that is to 7 hours from the place where he has roots (Rovereto). Juan's criminal charge is related to various acts of sabotage in Rovereto, Italy, where he had been living. These include attacks on banks, police vehicles, cell-phone relay equipment and the burning of three train-units of the Trenitalia railway company, an attack for which an anonymous claim of responsibility was made because of the company's involvement in the deportation of immigrants.
Juan had just spent several months in prison in Italy for resisting a police identification check in Rovereto in June of 2006. He and three of his anarchist companions resisted the cops attempt to drag them to a police station. Police reinforcements were called in and the police officers hit an anarchist in the face with a flash light and let loose with punches and kicks. The anarchists reacted, six cops sought first aid and one cop car was damaged. Juan was sentenced to nine months in prison for this incident. In a statement from prison, he and his companion Mike described their resistance as an act of solidarity with immigrants who also face identification checks, but under a more serious threat of deportation or death during escape attempts. At the end of September, a judge suspended Juan's sentence, with the condition that Juan remain in a different town and not leave, though his home was Rovereto. He left anyway and was arrested in Spain. Juan was also one of the four Rovereto anarchists arrested after the snatching of the Olympic flame in January of 2006, an action which one of the arrested anarchists, Massimo, claimed in court as being related to the exploitation of immigrant workers on the Olympic-related construction project of the TAV high-speed railway.
Juan Antonio Sorroche Fernandez
Casa Circondariale Ctr.
Castrogno 64100
Teramo
Italy