Hunger Strike: Update & Letter from Fivos Harisis – Network of Fighting Prisoners (Greece)

Today, Saturday 21/03 in the morning, about an hour after midnight, comrade Fivos Harisis, after having suffered a fainting episode in his cell, was initially transferred to the infirmary and then to the “hospital” Saint Paul of Korydallos prison. Although the doctor signed a referral for his transfer to an outside hospital, for unspecified reasons, Fivos remained in a hospital cell for the whole night, although it was at hypoglycemic shock limits with his sugar index reaching up to 45. The suffering of the comrade continued until 10 am, when the procedure for his transfer to “Attikon” hospital begun.



Yesterday, the comrade published a text informing us about his experience in Tzanio hospital:

Today, 20/3, and while being on the 19th day of hunger strike, I was transferred, after three hours of staying in the “hospital” of Korydallos prison, to Tzanio with the suffocating escort of EOM and EKAM (special police squads). My transfer to a tertiary hospital was deemed necessary as during my today’s medical review, my personal doctor Sakkas Spyridon diagnosed low blood sugar values (59), malaise, dizziness in addition to the fact that I’ve lost 9.3 pounds equivalent to 12.8% of my body weight.

During my stay in Tzanio all examinations were taking place under the suffocating presence of cops, a fact that didn’t irritate doctors at all, as they appeared to be very familiar with it. It is worth pointing out that during two medical tests the cops were willing to remove my handcuffs but the doctors did not let them, thus I had to be examined in irons. After all examinations were done and while I was lying handcuffed on a stretcher with four cops above my head, a doctor came in and started to inject sugar water into the tube they were using to get my blood sample, without asking me. When I realized what was happening (because I had my eyes closed at the beginning) I stopped her and removed the injection myself, asking her intensely why was she doing that without asking me while clarifying that the hunger strike I am on is my conscious choice and that I want to control the current decay of my body. After a short debate the doctor clarified in a harsh way that I as prisoner and a patient will do what the doctors say, not what I want and then she left. After ten minutes, the manager of the pathology clinic, Drimis Stylianos, made clear to me that if I do not accept the serum, I can not be hospitalized. To my arguments that the care of a hunger striker in the hospital is not about administrating serum but offering the best conditions possible in relation to the prison hospital and the direct control of vital organs, he repeated that there is no way for me to be hospitalized without serum. Finally, after my refusal to receive serum, to my question if he takes the responsibility to return me to prison with my blood sugar at the limits of a hypoglycemic shock, he replied that he does and that he has even signed the paperwork that would send me back to prison.

The doctors in each case must learn to step up and not work as subordinates of the cops when the patient happens to be a prisoner. The hunger strike is a conscious political choice of resistance. A choice made knowing the risks beforehand. The medical staff must be next to the patient by providing (in agreement with him/her) the necessary care instead of acting in a repressive way, just like another prison guard. From my side, I continue the hunger strike with no intention to retreat, supporting the demands of the Network of Fighting Prisoners:

– Abolition of counter-terrorism laws 187 and 187a

– Abolition of the law concerning special repressive treatment to actions commited wearing a hood.

– Limiting the use of DNA as a evidence.

– Abolition of type C prisons

-Release of the heavily injured urban guerrilla Savvas Ksiros, in order for him to receive the medical treatment he needs.



For every day that passes and for any deterioration of our health condition, the government of SYRIZA and specifically the minister of Justice Nikos Paraskevopoulos are to be held accountable.

IMMEDIATE SATISFACTION OF OUR DEMANDS

UNTIL THE END UNTIL VICTORY

Fivos Charisis

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Translated by Inter Arma

Tags: Athens, Fivos Harisis, Greece, Hunger Strike, Korydallos Prison, Network of Fighting Prisoners (NFP), Repression, SY.RIZ.A.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 22nd, 2015 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Prison Struggle.