By a solidarity group for Finn
Finn is an anti-fascist and climate activist. Among other things, he has fought for the preservation of Lützerath and the Heibo forest occupation. Finn was arrested on February 16, 2024 during the evacuation of the Heibo and, after several transfers to hospital, was transferred to Leipzig Prison on February 23, 2024. On the first day, he asked about vegan food, whereupon the female prison officer laughed at Finn and said: “We’re not in a hotel” – and locked the door to the cell.
A week later, Finn got a work and was transferred to another ward where he did a PC refresher course. There he also wrote letters. The guards found one letter in which Finn called on people to show solidarity and rally at the prison. The prison guards presented this as Finn calling for people to storm the prison. As a result, the Leipzig state prosecutor’s office ordered a post control by the prison’s security and order department. The security guard harassed Finn on a massive scale by only giving Finn part of his letters or not at all, or by not even sending letters. Finn has been denied access to his antidepressants and tranquilizers since the beginning of his time in prison, which he has urgently needed since his imprisonment because he has severe depression and has been exposed to additional stress. His many requests to the prison doctor did not change this, so his lawyer Winkler contacted the prison via the Leipzig state prosecutor’s office and, strangely enough, things went smoothly. Finn made a request for a meeting with the prison director. After he was laughed at for asking about a vegan diet, the conversation with the prison director took place three weeks later.The prison director told Finn the reasons why a vegan diet could not be offered, including that plant-based food was much more expensive than animal-based food… Finn then asked if he could buy and provide his own food, which the director agreed to. From that point on, Finn was self-sufficient. Once a money transfer from Rote Hilfe e.V. arrived later on Finn’s prison account, he was unable to buy food. As he can only go shopping every 14 days, Finn had no food and had to go hungry for more than a week. At Finn’s request, he was not offered vegan food. Finn was offered vegetarian food after a few days when several X users (formerly Twitter) reported it. Finn refused the vegetarian food because Finn would rather go hungry than harm animals. Despite all this, Finn is not giving up. “I have hope every, every day and I will never stop fighting,” he said in an interview with RadioBlau.
The prison doctor abruptly withdrew Finn’s medication without any consultation. When asked, she told his lawyer: “The medication was withdrawn after consultation with his treating psychiatrist”. Considering that one of the drugs is an antidepressant and that psychiatrists know the risks of abrupt withdrawal, the psychiatrist would not have approved this – but the prison staff cover for each other. Psychiatrists know that long-term medication must be phased out, otherwise it can lead to severe side effects. After five days, Finn began to feel the effects of the irresponsible actions of the prison doctor. Finn developed flu-like symptoms and when Finn made a phone call in the evening, he could no longer move the left side of his body. The person who called then immediately called the prison. Prison guards were quickly on site and took Finn to the emergency doctor on night shift in the infirmary.
Due to his symptoms, Finn was taken to hospital by ambulance, where the doctors and nurses immediately checked him for a heart attack, which fortunately could not be diagnosed. When asked by the treating doctor, Finn said that the prison doctor had abruptly stopped the antidepressant and that he was feeling much worse. The doctor told Finn that this was bodily harm and that he should report the hospital doctor for bodily harm, which Finn decided to do together with his lawyer.
But the state prosecutor’s office in Leipzig dropped the charges because they said everything was justified. The prison doctor had ordered Finn to the outpatient clinic, where he also did go. There, the prison doctor wanted to take a blood sample to test for medication and drug abuse, which Finn refused, saying, “I don’t have to participate in a blood test unless you have a court decision and I only have to participate in urine tests by order of the prison authorities. You are just a doctor and have no authorization and since you have neither a court decision nor an order from the prison director, I refuse this examination”. The prison doctor grumbled, but Finn didn’t care and left the outpatient clinic without a word.
Finn is harassed and discriminated against by the prison guards constantly. The prison staff repeatedly make it clear to Finn that his real name is his identity and not the self-chosen name “Finn Siebers”. The head of department has accused Finn of committing identity fraud, among other things, because he is not called that and there is a real Finn Siebers in Leipzig prison. And that he was committing fraud with the slogan #freeFinn and Finn Siebers. Given that Finn has been using his name in Lützerath since 2021, this name has no connection whatsoever with the other Finn. Finn has reported the head of department for defamation. Finn’s identity continues to be denied. Many letters are not handed to Finn at all but go straight to ” the belongings” because there is no Finn Siebers around here and his name also isn’t Finn Siebers.
All letters for him are marked c/o Scheffel, so it is clear that these letters are for and from Finn. Finn’s requests usually lie around unanswered for days or weeks, for example at the social worker’s – and once he is at her office, everything has to be done within five minutes. Requests to the cell clerk are not processed for weeks, and his last request was not processed at all because the cell clerk was of the opinion that this was no longer necessary.
Finn’s detention room is randomly checked several times a week. However, as Finn does not have any illegal items, such as a cell phone, drugs, weapons … something that has been approved for him is arbitrarily removed in order to exert power over him. During the last detention room check, Finn’s detention room was almost emptied and during this time Finn was locked in another room without access to a toilet or water. There was no response to shouts that he was thirsty and needed to go to the toilet. Finn filed charges against the guard for coercion and assault, among other things. The Leipzig state prosecutor’s office is conducting a separate investigation into coercion and corruption as a public official. Finn has a poster in his detention room that reads “Against racism and racial profiling in the train station district and everywhere”. Another guard said that if he put up a poster like that, he should stop opposing the state, the justice system and the police, because they were also a race and therefore it was also racism. Finn made it clear to the guard that he had nothing against him as a person, but only against his employers. “I am against the justice system and not against individuals – but against the system.”
Finn is one of the privileged prisoners who helps other prisoners with his experience and knowledge. Foreign nationals are dehumanized in Leipzig Prison. Those who can’t speak German have a very difficult time. It starts with the house rules, which are only available in German, as are all applications. So if you can’t speak German, you don’t even know how to call your family or friends or make an appointment for a visit. They are also not told that they can get an interpreter. A fellow prisoner and Finn have shown great commitment to them. Finn helped his cellmate so that he could call his mother and get an interpreter to come to the prison. Without this help, he would still not have been able to call his mother or speak to an interpreter. Finn asked if the house rules or applications were also available in other languages. The ward clerk in ward 2 told Finn that we were in Germany and that the official language was German. And if you don’t know it, you’re just out of luck or have to learn it. However, the foreign citizens do know the German words ” Later” and ” Lock-up”.
“Since the beginning of 2024, this fellow prisoner has been a great help to me, he has helped a lot the foreign citizens who sometimes wait months for their trial for minor theft – e.g. a jar of sausages and a bread roll”. About three months ago, the German course for foreign citizens was canceled, so they don’t even have the opportunity to learn German. They should buy a dictionary, that would save money. It shows the harassment and humiliation that prisoners are subjected to by the guards at Leipzig Prison.
On May 22, 2024, the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe ruled that Finn’s appeal had been rejected and that the Leipzig Regional Court’s sentence of three years and six months was final, and that he would now be transferred to the responsible prison. On May 31, 2024, Finn was transferred to Waldheim Prison, which is also in Saxony.
Finn is currently in the admission house, initially for 4-8 weeks [at the time this article first was published]. He still has a solitary confinement cell and three hours of unlocking. He can do his own laundry and eat his lunch with others. The application for providing his own food is currently still under review. However, the prison is much better than in Leipzig. Finn has settled in well in Waldheim and will soon get a job.
Finn’s revision has caused high costs, so please donate to this account:
Reference: „Heibo-FreeFinn“
Name: Spenden & Aktion
IBAN DE29 5139 0000 0092 8818 06
BIC: VBMHDESF
We show our solidarity with Finn and protest against the inhumane conditions in prison!
Finn is happy about every letter that he receives, because it briefly interrupts his isolation and makes everyday life in prison a little more colorful. Finn shows solidarity with all political prisoners and people in on the run!
Anti-fascism remains legitimate & necessary! Against any criminalization of left-radical structures! Solidarity is and will remain our strongest weapon!
Whether inside or outside – we are still united. Solidarity makes us strong – feeling solidarity helps us to survive prison.
You can find more information about Finn and his postal address at:
www.freeFinn.org
Finn is also on Google:
www.riseup.icu
Source of the articel:
https://rote-hilfe.de/sites/default/files/2024-08/RHZ_2024_3_Web.pdf