Turbulence Press Release III: ‘Tadzio Released But Charged, Others Still Detained’
Thursday’s press release is here, and Friday’s here.
Press Release
For Immediate Release
Saturday 19 December, 2009
19.00 Hours
Detained Climate Activist Tadzio Mueller Released in Copenhagen; Still Faces Charges; Numerous Protesters Remain in Custody; Nearly 5,000 Petition Signatories Demand the Release of Everyone
Copenhagen, Denmark
Tadzio Mueller, one of the spokespeople for Climate Justice Action (and a Turbulence editor), was released today by a Copenhagen court after having been arrested leaving a press conference at the UN Climate Change Conference on Tuesday. Tadzio is still facing serious charges related to an alleged conspiracy to incite threats of violence. Numerous protesters remain in custody, including two other spokespeople for Climate Justice Action.
Following the arrests of close to 2,000 other demonstrators in Copenhagen over the last week, an international campaign for the release of those who are still detained has gained momentum. An online petition making a series of demands has gathered almost 5,000 signatures so far.
Ben Trott, a fellow editor of Turbulence with Tadzio Mueller, said, “It’s great news that Tadzio has finally been released, although the charges against him are preposterous and should be dropped at once. And as the petition we’ve passed to the Danish government via the embassies in Berlin and London says, we’re demanding the immediate release of all the climate prisoners.”
Emma Dowling, a lecturer in Ethics, Governance and Accountability at the University of London, said, “I am shocked at how people who have had the courage to voice their critique and push for real climate justice have been criminalised at this Summit. The tragedy is that the real criminals are not the people detained, but those people who put the interests of profit before the well-being of people and the earth. The protesters should be thanked, not criminalised, and all charges dropped at once.”
Corinna Genschel from the Committee for Basic Rights and Democracy said, “What we have witnessed in Copenhagen, as well as in other summit protests we have monitored, was that civil rights and democracy have been suspended. We also saw a fundamental disrespect for human rights. However, the rights to assemble and voice one’s collective, dissenting opinion – in a way that one is seen, heard, and in a place of one’s choosing – is a fundamental right every democracy is premised upon. Copenhagen demonstrates, though, that it is common to restrict democracy and basic rights without any limits: through the introduction of ‘prevention laws’, the criminalisation of organisers, or through the removal of passes. Democracy and basic rights are, however, as Copenhagen also demonstrates, best protected by their being practiced by citizens: loud, colourfully, and in places of one’s choosing.”
Notes to the Editor
1) For background about the case and the campaign for the prisoners’ release, see the press releases from Thursday 17 December and Friday 18 December on the Turbulence website: www.turbulence.org.uk
2) The online petition, ‘Release Tadzio Mueller and the other climate prisoners!’ is available online here: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Tadzio/petition.html
3) For more information about the Copenhagen mobilisation, see: http://climate-justice-action.org/press/
4) The following online petition has also been set up, demanding the release of Dr. Luca Tornatore: http://www.petitiononline.com/freeall/petition.html
-
Who we are
Turbulence is a journal/newspaper that we hope will become an ongoing space in which to think through, debate and articulate the political, social, economic and cultural theories of our movements, as well as the networks of diverse practices and alternatives that surround them. Read more here
-
Turbulence on Myspace
