We are calling to witness the first session of the marathon trial which is hold against the Caravan- and Nolager-activist Akubuo Chukwudi. The court case takes place on Tuesday, 15th of November at 10 a.m., Amtsgericht Parchim, Saal 2 (Moltkeplatz 2).
Aufruf auf deutsch / Call in English
The Nigerian refugee Akubuo has fought for more than 10 years against the racist structures and authorities in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Since he has married last year he doesn’t have to live any more in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
However, the authorities in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are still willing to persecute Akubuo. In this respect they have collected several of the more serious charges against Akubuo from the last years (some of them are almost 5 years old). They intend to deal with all those charges in one single court case – it looks as if they wanted to reach a strong conviction! All of the cases are directly linked to Akubuo‘s (political) resistance:
1. Akubuo has protested again and again against the „Gutschein-System“. His protests included public appropriations of goods in Aldi and Penny in order to point out the racist character of the „Gutschein-System“. That is the reason why he is now accused for theft and robbery in several cases!
2. Akubuo confronted even the authorities themselves (on a personal basis) again and again: On the occasion of one of these confrontations he let the workers at the „Sozialamt“ know that their computers etc. would be racist. Consequently he destroyed some of them! This is now another charge.
3. One of Akubuo’s main fights was directed against ‚jungle homes‘ (that means: refugee homes who are located in forest – in the middle of nowhere). He himself was forced to live for almost 10 years in the jungle home Peeschen/Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Furthermore he has experienced how refugees were humiliated and deported on a daily basis – without any witnesses from outside. That was the reason why he used once the opportunity to show the Chef of the Ausländerbehörde Parchim what it means to be held captive in the forest: While he was visiting Peeschen Akubuo punctered all wheels of his car with a knife.
4. The last charge is the most scandalous one: Last year Akubuo was quite seriously attacked and injured in a disco in Parchim by about 10 racist young men. However, Akubuo managed to defend himself. One of the attackers was afterwards seriously injured as well. Akubuo is now being accused of having attacked this man and his friends!
Three times (for altogether 8 months) Akubuo stayed in deportation-prisons. Because of his resistance and broad support by many people from outside the authorities didn’t succed to deport him. With this new court-case they try once more to intimidate not only Akubuo himself but refugee activists in general. They do it although the history has proofed that Akubuo and all the others were right: In the meanwhile the Gutschein-System has been dropped more or less completely and even most of the jungle homes had to be closed. Nevertheless the authorities try even today to criminalize the resistance against those (yet historical) structures and laws.
One last word: Akubuo is not the only refugee-activist who is right at the moment accused in Parchim and other places in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. There are even other cases – many of them coming from last year‘s Anti-Lager-action-Tour. In one court case a refugee activist has been already condemned quite seriously (fortunately it was possible for him to made an appeal against it).
Please come to the court hearing!
Get in touch with your local group of the Caravan, NoLager or Plataforma