On January 3 the Digos political police in Turin notified the request of “special surveillance” for two years – with compulsory residence in Turin – brought forward by the city’s public prosecutor against those who supported the Rojava revolution.

The recipients of this measure are Paolo, Eddi, Jak, Davide and Jacopo, five youth that – in various ways – supported on the ground, in the latest two years, the efforts of the peoples of Northern Syria in defence of the confederal revolution against the aggression by the Islamic State. Special surveillance is an invasive measure of control which inflicts – upon a judge’s ruling – the ban of leaving the place one is being confined to, and to compulsory report to surveillance authorities on specified days and at any time upon request. It is a measure which strongly damages personal freedom, derived from the fascist Rocco law but enforced many times in a pejorative way, and that can be renewed by the court which inflicts it.

The request by Public Prosecutor Emanuela Pedrotta, specialized in the systematic persecution of the No Tav struggle and of the Turinese political militants starts from the hypothesis of the “social dangerousness” of the five who, by joining YPG and YPJ – the people protection units involved in the fight against ISIS – would have learnt using weapons. A reconstruction being cursory and self-evident at the same time. Whether, on one hand, it is obvious that in a war zone it is essential to defend by any means necessary the civilian population from the terrorist organizations – exactly like the YPG and the YPJ do, with an evident function of protection and not social dangerousness – it is also true (as stated by the many reportings and testimonies of the five themselves) that not all of them joined the military and popular groups; but also contributed to the defence of Rojava by supporting and participating in the civilian organizations of the Northern Syrian Federation. A dangerous generalization that seems to undermine the right and duty of information of everybody reaching and living in the complex background of war zones, especially in a scenario being highly misrepresented in the Western media like the one of the Syrian conflict. Actually, on this portal we gladly featured the reportings of some of the five about the developments of the popular resistance against Jihadi gangs in the cities of Afrin or Manbij. A meritorious contribution, one being almost absent from the media outlets of this country, and that, as a recipient of the request keeps repeating in these hours, “I would do it a hundred times over”.

The hearing for the request by Turins public prosecutor is set for January 23 at 10 am. Updates on the mobilizations from now to January 23 against this attack and intimidation willing to hit those who struggle and support the freedom of the peoples against the Islamic State tyranny will follow.

Solidarity to the five, Biji YPG, Biji YPJ