A RECORD 100 DISPLAY CASES WERE HIJACKED FOR BERLIN DEPORTATION CONFERENCE ~ from antifawerkstatt ~ The Tiergarten District Court has once again dismissed criminal proceedings for adbusting with fake police posters. A penal order had been issued, and a court date was set for November 6. The proceedings, which had dragged on for over two years, have now been dismissed. According to the Interior Ministers’ Conference in Berlin in February 2023, the communications guerrilla group “Against German National Police Violence” (GdP) hijacked a record-breaking 100 advertising display cases in S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations. They placed their own posters in these displays, designed as part of a police image campaign. The adbustings addressed police violence, racism, and deportations. Despite already having issued a penalty order for 60 daily rates of €30 each (a total of €1,800), the court now declined to proceed with the case. “We probably drew too much attention to police arbitrariness at the last court case in August!” said Kai N. Krieger from the Workshop for Antifascist Actions (W2A), who coordinated the solidarity work. The Interior Ministers’ Conference took place in Berlin in June 2023. This was a good opportunity to demonstrate to the public that this was a meeting of deportation ministers. The communications guerrilla group “Against German Nationalist Police Violence” (GdP) therefore organised the largest adbusting campaign in years in Berlin. The group hijacked a near-record 120 advertising display cases in subway and S-Bahn stations. The group designed the posters themselves. The style was inspired by the police’s official “110% Berlin” campaign. Illustrated with a document shredder, one of the poster motifs featured the slogan: “Our reappraisal of racism. 110% not.” The activists combined an image of a special task force (SEK) blowing down doors with the statement: “Deportation to a war zone? Gladly! 110% violence.” A PR advertising image of a young policewoman at a desk with a file folder is combined with the slogan “Racism? Let’s deport! 110% goodbye.” The police responded to the action with an immediate manhunt. Unfortunately, the officers arrested two people. They were searched, interrogated, and detained at the station until the early hours of the morning. According to the file, the State Security Service explained to the investigating federal police officers by phone on the day of the action that adbusting with self-brought posters was not a criminal offence. “If you don’t steal or break anything, it’s neither theft nor property damage,” explained Sam A. Hax at the time. The Berlin public prosecutor’s office had already issued a dismissal notice in 2020, which the adbusting scene promptly published as “Darfschein” (permission to allow) and which remains in effect today This was preceded by arbitrary and disproportionate police measures. From 2015 to 2019, the Berlin State Criminal Police Office (LKA) attempted, with enormous effort, to criminalise adbusting through house searches and reports to the Counter-Terrorism Center. After determined solidarity efforts, a failed court case in 2019, as well as dozens of parliamentary inquiries and extensive media coverage in 2020 and 2021, the Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office quietly dropped all criminal proceedings against satirically altered advertising posters.  Nationwide Repercussions Public prosecutors from other cities have also followed Berlin’s example of not prosecuting satirical poster activism. For example, in Erlangen in 2021, Stuttgart in 2021, and Göttingen in 2024. In December 2023, the Federal Constitutional Court even declared three house searches illegal for anti-militarist adbusting. In a recent case heard at the Tiergarten District Court on August 25, 2025, the court was also unable to reach a verdict and discontinued the proceedings. However, after the adbusting campaign for the 2023 Conference of Women Interior Ministers, the Federal Police were unfazed by this legal situation. According to the file, the first idea for criminalisation came to them while searching the suspect. The person had a BVG day ticket with him. This ticket had not been validated. The police immediately initiated criminal proceedings for “obtaining services by deception.” The public prosecutor’s office quickly dropped the case: “There is no law in Germany that requires a valid ticket in police stations,” explained Kai N. Krieger, spokesperson for the Workshop for Antifascist Actions. But the cops blithely continued their investigation. They simply acted as if they had no knowledge of the legal situation and accused the activist of theft and property damage. They forced the company who owned the advertisements to report even the smallest, presumably old, damage to advertising display cases. Furthermore, the Federal Police, with at least two officers, spent nine months analysing video camera recordings at the train stations affected by the operation. “I would be happy if they were as dedicated to searching for my next stolen bike…” said Kai N. Krieger. “Maybe I should write slogans about police brutality and racism on it to get the cops interested?” No damage to property, no theft. Finally, the Federal Police handed over the investigation to the State Security Office (LKA 521). This office, too, suddenly, despite better judgement, insisted on the allegations of damage to property and theft and handed over the investigation results to the public prosecutor’s office. However, the LKA received a setback from there. The public prosecutor’s office discontinued the proceedings regarding these charges saying: “With regard to the offences of June 13, 2023 (sic!), the evidence of damage to property cannot be provided with the certainty required for indictment. […] The proceedings are therefore discontinued with regard to the allegations of damage to property and theft pursuant to Section 170, Paragraph 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.” A new allegation was needed. Officers noticed that one of the posters featured a press photo from the Saxony police. It depicts a police officer smiling at the camera from her desk. The group “Against German Nationalist Police Violence (GdP)” captioned the poster with the slogan: “Racism? Let’s deport!” The LKA 521 found that this violated the police officer’s right to their own image under Section 22 of the Art Copyright Act. A parliamentary inquiry in the House of Representatives by Niklas Schrader revealed that the case had become a political issue. The public prosecutor’s office had initially declined jurisdiction. However, once the case was referred again to the public prosecutor’s office they now felt they had jurisdiction and requested a penal order. A penal order landed in the mailbox of one of the arrested individuals in the spring of 2025. The charge: violation of Section 22 of the Art Copyright Act. The Tiergarten District Court imposed a fine of 60 daily rates of €30 each, a total of €1,800. The defendant appealed the penalty order; the district court initially set a court date for November 6th. Section 23 of the German Art Copyright Act explicitly lists exceptions when a person’s image may be used without their consent. One of these exceptions is so-called “portraits from the area of contemporary history.” According to Kai N. Krieger, this is precisely such an image: “The police officer knowingly allowed herself to be photographed for a press photo, which the police still use to recruit new recruits.” Thus, she is not depicted as a private individual, but rather as part of the police’s public self-portrayal: “And it is precisely this public self-portrayal that adbustings satirically address. Of course, this image can be used for that purpose! The fact that the district court is using this section to criminalize satire critical of the police is a scandal!” But the trial never came to fruition. The Berlin adbusting scene was undeterred by the criminal proceedings and simply carried on. For example, during the 2024 European Football Championship several mega-billboards in major train stations were targeted. Adbusters pasted speech bubbles onto the posters. They made the policewoman pictured utter self-criticisms like, “…I’m so sick of this racist business!” and “…we’re actually just a bunch of state-paid violent criminals!” This campaign also received media feedback. Here, too, according to the file, the police invested a massive amount of manpower in watching videos. An officer at the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) 521 believed he recognized the second suspect from the action at the Interior Ministers’ Conference. Hoping to have a clear, easily prosecutable incident, the public prosecutor’s office dropped the ongoing proceedings against this individual for copyright infringement after the Interior Ministers’ Conference. They applied for a penal order for the adbusting action at the European Championships. This was a mistake, as it turned out. The trial against the second suspect for the European Championship campaign took place on August 25, 2025. Accompanied by a solidarity campaign, a rebellious audience, and lively media interest, the court dismissed the proceedings due to their triviality in exchange for a donation of €900.00. The fuss didn’t go unnoticed. Things were happening behind the scenes. Two weeks after the trial, the defendant in the adbusting campaign at the Interior Ministers’ Conference received a dismissal offer in exchange for a donation of €900. “Suddenly, the court and the public prosecutor’s office were no longer so concerned about pursuing adbusting campaigns that criticised the police!” Kai N. Krieger rejoiced. Our conclusion: Appeals against penal orders make sense. Public relations work on court cases also makes sense. Conducting court cases makes sense because they have an impact on other proceedings. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Machine translation The post Germany: Charges dropped against adbusters appeared first on Freedom News.

MATROZOU 45 RE-OCCUPIERS SENTENCED TO 77 MONTHS TOGETHER WHILE 79 DEFENDERS OF THE PROSFYGIKA COMMUNITY GO ON TRIAL TODAY ~ Kit Dimou ~ In Athens, the trial continues today of 79 defenders of the Prosfygika community who resisted a police raid in 2022. On Tuesday, four participants in the re-occupation of the Matrozou squat in 2020 were sentenced to 77 months in prison between them. The Prosfygika community is an occupied neighbourhood in the heart of Athens with over 400 residents. The area was invaded on 22 November 2022 by anti-terror units, who arrested anarchist Kostas Dimalexis in connection with an arson attack by an anarchist group in July 2022; while Kostas was eventually found not guilty and released after a year of prison, his 79 comrades who participated in the defence of Prosfygika against the raid face heavy charges, including breach of the peace, assault on police officers, carrying offensive weapons, and illegal possession and use of pyrotechnics. On Tuesday, the iconic Matrozou 45 reoccupation case reached its conclusion. The four comrades who participated were found guilty and sentenced to 77 months in prison in total; they are currently on parole until appeal. The attempted reoccupation on 11 January 2020 involved two of the three squats operated by the Koukaki Squat Community. This was an initiative resisting the far-reaching gentrification and touristification of this traditionally proletarian neighbourhood. Along with the Panaitoliou squat, it had been evicted a month earlier. This was part of the provocative ultimatum announced by the right-wing New Democracy government, demanding all illegally occupied spaces in Greece to be abandoned by 6 December 2019, the anniversary of the police murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos in 2008 which sparked a historic uprising in the city.  The re-occupation failed, as crowds outside the squats were brutally attacked by police and driven out of the neighbourhood in an operation that lasted several hours. The  comrades inside defended themselves tooth and nail, leading to six police injuries, but were ultimately arrested. As opposed to those involved in the Panaitoliou reoccupation, who were unanimously found not guilty, the Matrozou comrades were treated exceedingly harshly by the court. While initially only facing misdemeanour charges, the charges against them were upgraded to felonies after public expressions of outrage by Prime Minister Mitsotakis, government ministers and the Police Union. At trial, no extenuating circumstances were taken into account. Even the prosecutor’s recommendation that the accused only serve half their prison time was not accepted by the president of the court.  The trials are taking place against the background of recent evictions and re-occupations of famous squats — Evangelismos and Kasteli hill in Crete, and Ano-Kato in Athens. In the Athens Polytechnic, another ultimatum is currently threatening three long-standing occupations on campus with eviction. The post Greece: Harsh sentencing for squatters  appeared first on Freedom News.