Solidarity is a weapon
If you experienced repression during an action in the context of #besetzen, you will not be left alone. We want to have a solidary approach with repression and show strength by a commun acting against the authorities and owners of housing. We support each other with advice and financial support. We also discuss together which strategy we choose to respond to the repression. It is important to us that we all hold together and do not endanger each other (unknowingly). This means that you should not make statements to the police and do not distance yourself from the action.
Do not be intimidated by the repression – we’ll do it together!
On this page: Repression during the action Possible accusations Lawsuit prosecution Strategy Networking Solidarian money/Soligeld Resources Points of contact Contact
Repression during the action
If you have been arrested in an action or have observed arrests, it makes sense to write a memory protocol (to write down your memories in detail).
If you have harms, you can also have them documented (attest). Be sure to go to a doctor inmediantly, preferably the same or the following day after the harm.
If you are mentally / emotionally ill (nightmares, depression, sadness), then you should know that such feelings are completely normal after experiences of police violence. ‘Out of action‘ provides information and help on this topic, i.a. regular conversation offers. If you want mental support or just like to meet people to talk about (repression), feel free to contact us.
Possible accusations
In contexts of occupations, these accusations can be expected:
| accusation | paragraph | to expect* |
| Trespassing | § 123 StGb | 30-40 daily rates |
| resistance | § 113 StGb | Ab 30 daily rates |
| physical attack (tätlicher Angriff) | § 114 StGb | Ab 60 daily rates |
| Violation of the assembly law (disguise) | §17a VersG | 30 daily rates |
* How high the punishment looks like in a specific case can vary considerably, depending on whether you’ve been noticed by the police, how high your income is, or whether the state is currently particularly interested in intimidation.
In the course of 2018 and 2019 a few criminal charges have surfaced, for which we thnik that the reasoning particularly far-fetched. Be aware that the police always have the opportunity to construct accusations with false statements. We should not be intimidated by it, but to understand the criticism of these practices of the police as part of Antirepression work.
Examples of such fictional punishments from our context are:
- Heavy trespassing
- Breach of the peace/Landfriedensbruch
- Mayhem/Körperverletzung
- Tried prisoner release
Expiry prosecution
Summons (1st letter)
The first letter informs you that a case is underway and is being investigated. It is listed, what you are accused of. However, that can be different from the one you will be sentenced for later. You will also be asked to comment either in writing or verbally on the accusation.
→ You do not have to do that and you should not. We do not talk to the police. This is a principle that is important to us because in such a conversation you only endanger yourself or others through your statements. If you want to read more about the background, check the Resources section.
Penal orders (2nd letter)
Written penal orders are shortened judgments. This means that you will be sentenced in court without a hearing, unless you file an appeal within 2 weeks. The second letter can also be an indictment, then follows the summons to the court date. This is the case when the judges * and / or the public prosecutor’s office insist on a trial, which usually happens in more severe accusations.
→ You should definitely appeal against the penal order! You do not have to justify that and you can take it back it until the final judgment is pronounced without any disadvantages. Why we recommend this you can read in the strategy section.
Personal details (letter in between)
Sometimes you still get a letter in between, in which you are asked for information about yourself.
→ Basically, you never have to specify more than the details on your ID card. Not responding to this letter can lead to a fine. Since the police already have the information you are providing anyway, we would recommend you just give it to them.
If you get one of these letters (or another) in context, then please let us know.
Strategy
There are several ways in which we can respond to legal repression. There are always individual reasons for what is going on and what is not. We did not choose the repression. Possible goals when dealing with repression can be:
- As low as possible punishment, acquittal or termination of the procedure
- As low as possible overall costs
- scandal
- Use court as a stage for political content
- Empowerment
- Ridicule and obstruction of the state / court
- Infos win over police tactics, owner …
- …
Objection!
Please always submit an objection first!
What that means:
The expresses that you do not agree with the verdict and usually leads to a trial. Until it comes to that, it takes in Belin but usually some months.
What are your options:
You do not have to substantiate the objection and it will not be interpreted in a negative way. I can be to the point of the final judgment without damage. In that case, you would accept the original verdict from the penalty order.
Why is that meaningful?
- Time for networking
- Time to think about common strategies
- No disadvantages for you
- First of all only causes costs for the state, not for you
You can file an objection with these textures:
In dem Strafverfahren (Aktenzeichen) gegen mich: Gegen den Strafbefehl vom (Datum), mir zugestellt am (Datum), lege ich Einspruch ein. Ich beantrage Akteneinsicht gemäß § 147 Abs. 4 StPO und bitte um Mitteilung, wann und wo diese genommen werden kann. (Datum + Unterschrift)
(If you have a lawyer, you can use it for the appeal.)
Accept or Negotiate?
After the objection, you can still pull and accept the punishment order. Then you get the penalty and the procedure is finished.
If you do not pull the objection back, it will eventually come to a negotiating date. The heist that you want to court loaded and one judge in a judgment case. There are the following options:
- Acquittal (you will not receive a penalty)
- terminating the proceeding (you will not be declared guilty, but you will have to work on social services, you will have influence on upcoming proceedings and judgments)
- Conviction (you get a penalties that can be greater or less than your penalty order)
Thoughts on negotiations:
- Expense for the state (authorities are overloaded)
- Show that you do not agree
- Witnesses (which must be loaded) annoying
- Creating publicity is possible
- Punishment can be reduced or increased
- Effort for you
- Probably associated with legal fees
Lawyer * in or self-defense?
In your process, you can decide if you want support from a lawyer * or not. However, since lawyers are expensive and our soligeld pot is limited, you’re not going to get a lawyer from the beginning. You can also file an appeal and accept a punishment order. We can assist with these steps.
Only when it comes to the negotiation it becomes more difficult. In most cases you are looking for a lawyer for support. If you decide, then you can contact us, we will then refer you to solidary lawyers.
You can also conduct the trial yourself (lay defense). However, we have little or no experience with it and hardly any people actively involved. But you can search for the network people who are also interested and open a working group. Information about this topic can be found in our resources.
Offensive political litigation?
The trial can be used to clarify the political goals of #besetzen. The negotiation can be used to questionning the right to property ownership by expressing arguments against the ownership of property that is naturally presented.
Judges, public prosecutors and owners can be annoyed for example by:
- applications
- full courtroom with supporters
- political plea
- personal statements
- various actions in and outside the courtroom
This get possible because most of the court hearings are open to the public and also to journalists and supporters. If we do not simply follow the penalty and pay them, but choose political litigation, the authorities and the owners will cost more time and effort. The can be dropped.
Demand legal proceeding?
– Only possible with trespassing –
Trespassing is an offence that need to be applied. This means that the house the owners need to apply for it and also can withdraw it on any point of time.
The previous attempts to put pressure on the house owners were not successful, but it remains an option for our anti – repression strategies.
Networking
// Alone they make you //
It is important to us that we understand anti-repression work as a collective task. That means that we:
- Sharing our experiences
- Thinking together about strategies
- Assist in the decision of individual
- Emotional support
- Bear the costs in solidarity
- Distribute incoming tasks
To do that, you need good communication. Therefore please contact us as soon as possible, so that we have keep your case in mind and you can be included in the communication structures.
To meet
We initiate meetings, that handle special actions, to enable the exchange of the affected.
And we’re doing big #besetzen Antirepression meetings where we all want to get together and talk about our overall strategy together. Supporters can also come here to take responsibility.
| Next action meetings | |
| Borni | gerade nicht geplant |
| Berli | gerade nicht geplant |
| Wrangel | gerade nicht geplant |
| … | gerade nicht geplant |
| Next #besetzen meet: | gerade nicht geplant |
If no meeting is announced, please contact us.
Solidary money
We collect money for our soli-account in different ways. If any costs for you arose that you can’t cover, just contact us.
We want to cover the costs in solidarity and try to help all who contact us. The Rote Hilfe covers under certain circumstances (https://www.rote-hilfe.de/) half of the expenses (the fine, the lawyer, process costs). We would love to support everybody but unfortunatley the reality looks different. We are really far from being able to cover all the costs.
This is why we have a waiting list system: If you need (soli-)money but you can wait a bit longer, then tell us how long and we can let really urgent cases have their money first.
If you want, you can collect money for our repression yourself (maybe with you friends?) through for example soli-events. That would really help us. If you have any money left you can of course also donate. We created an account for that; you can find it under: https://www.besetzen.org/spenden
Resources
If you’re still looking for more information, just have a look here:
everything is in german
- about penalty order
- Why refuse the statement
- Objectives of offensive litigation
- more tips on offensive litigation
- Information about house searches
Points of contact
Rote Hilfe Consultation
- Spend 50% of the costs, inform you and help organize solidary support groups
- District parts Lunte (Neukölln)
- every Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:00 pm
- Weisestraße 53 12049 Berlin
- Clipper 8 (wedding)
- every 1st & 3rd Tuesday at 19 o’clock
- Schererstrasse 8 13347 Berlin
- Secondhand bookshop idleness (Kreuzberg)
- every 2nd & 4th Thursday at 6 pm
- Oranienstr. 14a (Heinrichplatz) 10999 Berlin
- berlin@rote-hilfe.de
- http://www.berlin.rote-hilfe.de/
Occupy office hours
- Dealing with repression and information about soligruppen
- Thu 6 – 8 pm
- ABB – Schererstr. 8 13327 Berlin
- besetzensprechstunde@systemli.org
- https://besetzensprechstunde.noblogs.org/
ABC Berlin
- Support affected persons and organize solidarity actions
- abc-berlin@immerda.ch
- https://www.abc-berlin.net/
EA office hours
- Questions about repression
- Tues 20 – 21 clock
- Gneisenaustraße 2a
- 2nd courtyard on the right, 1st floor on the right
- https://ea-berlin.net/
Contact
You can reach us via: antirep@besetzen.org (best encrypted)
Important: Remember that when it is about Antirep, you can be relatively easily deanonymized, so please take care from which email address you contact us.
Please contact us as soon as possible. Because we want to get an overview of the current status in order to be able to coordinate the antirep work. It would help us if you would answer the following questions:
When the punishment order came:
- How can we contact you to invite you to Antirep meetings?
- Did you claim file inspection?
- Do you have a lawyer (name and office)?
- Have you already done something?
- What are the accusations?
- When did the letters arrive (subpoena, information)?
- Have you already filed an appeal?
- Who is your judge?
- What are the accusations and what are the respective and all legal consequences (daily rates in which amount and number, etc.)?
- When did the punishment order come?