France: Seven charged over TGV rail sabotage

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(See below this text for a commentary on the case so far "On Sabotage Considered as One of the Fine Arts")

from various sources, updated 18 November 2008:

A French judge has slapped terrorism charges on seven people suspected of sabotaging France's rail network, including the 34-year-old alleged ringleader of the self-styled "invisible cell".

If found guilty of heading a terrorist organisation, Julien Coupat, a former sociology student, faces up to 20 years in jail.

He was also warned by magistrate Thierry Fragnoli that he faces charges connected with membership of a terrorist organisation and a refusal to submit to a DNA test.

Thousands of passengers and more than 160 train services were delayed last weekend after a gang jammed steel rods across overhead power cables on three high-speed lines between Paris and London, Brussels and the French regions.

The attack halted trains and damaged several sections of 25,000-volt power lines, but no one was hurt.

Nine people, four men and five women, aged between 22 and 34, most from comfortable backgrounds, were later detained and it emerged they had been under surveillance as part of an investigation opened in April.

More details about Coupat emerged on Saturday with investigators describing him as a brilliant student from a well-off background who had drifted into violent action.

His father was a doctor, his mother a senior executive and he had been to a top business school.

In the town in central France where he eventually established himself he took over the grocery store and was liked by the locals.

Coupat is one of five of those arrested suspected of having taken an active part in the sabotage operations. Investigators say they do not have evidence linking the other four directly to the sabotage.

All nine are alleged to have belonged to an anarchist movement styling itself the "invisible cell".

Seven had been taken before the magistrate on Saturday evening and been told they faced charges of various gravity in relation to the sabotage. The remaining two were expected to appear later.

A magistrate responsible for deciding on whether five of those facing serious charges should remain in custody, as requested by prosecutors, was due to rule on Saturday night.

Coupat's girlfriend, Yldun L, and another young woman, Gabrielle H, face charges of causing damage, criminal conspiracy and participation in a terrorist enterprise.

Benjamin R and his girlfriend Manon G are accused of criminal conspiracy in connection with a terrorist enterprise but the magistrate rejected prosecution claims that they had taken part in the attack on the overhead power cables.

The first two to appear before the magistrate were Elsa H and Bertrand D, whose involvement in the attack was not established. They face the same charges but were not kept in custody.

See also: TELEGRAPH: French anarchists linked to New York bombing

[original article]

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On Sabotage Considered as One of the Fine Arts

posted 18 November 2008:

Translation from here

The following text was written by a number of companions in the context of the arrests last November 11th. It may be distributed freely and widely in any form. In a time of "crisis," when the State is showering the capitalists with billions of dollars, it attempting once more to isolate a few "bad rebels" to better eliminate them all. We won't play this dupes' game.

You'd have to be really blind not to see sabotage as the classical weapon of the exploited. And you'd have to have a pretty short memory to forget that in every social war, many a rebel refuses to wait for everyone to move before expressing his or her anger.

From the riots of November 2005 to the CPE riots of spring 2006, from factory occupations and kidnappings of directors to the numerous acts of sabotage during the railway workers' movement of November 2007, it's clear for a lot of people that we won't have an end to our situation of misery and exploitation by begging for it.

In this prison society, we're expected to believe we're in the best of possible worlds: commodity democracy. And they try to force us to believe it with tazer shocks and ballots. The wars and the poisoning of the planet for money are nonetheless a clear reminder that capitalism is a death-dealing system and that the State is not a friend, but an enemy.

And so we must fight back, to destroy what destroys us. Struggle individually and collectively wherever we are for a world emancipated from the bonds of exploitation and domination. It is not their penal codes and morality that must dictate what we must do, but the rage and ethics of each and every one of us.

On the 11th of November, ten persons were placed under arrest during a new operation by the Ministry of Terror, and accused of sabotaging the tension wires of SNCF trains during the prior weekend. Journalist cops, politicos, and jackals came from all sides to hurriedly denounce an imaginary "anarcho-autonomist" movement. On the same pretext of "association of criminals with terrorist aims," three comrades have already been arrested, and some held for over 9 months, accused of an attempt to burn a police vehicle in Paris in May 2007, during the explosions of anger that arose to greet the last presidential election.

In a time of "crisis," when the State is showering the capitalists with billions of dollars, it attempting once more to isolate a few "bad rebels" to better eliminate them all. But it hardly matters whether they're guilty or innocent; we'll leave those categories to the robe-wearing toads and their sustainers.

Because in the same way as the passion for freedom can't be captured in an acronym, what domination most fears is a diffuse and anonymous replication of these attacks. Solidarity against State terrorism, by all means anyone considers adequate.

Let us derail the train of everyday routine.

November 12th, 2008.

[original article]

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