Anna and Arthur shut up
Anna and Arthur shut up is a campaign of the autonomous movement that was first launched in 1987 and has since been picked up several times . Under this slogan, accused and witnesses are called upon to refuse to cooperate with the police , judiciary and secret services . The protagonists "Anna" and "Arthur" are fictional and symbolize everyone involved.
The campaign was initiated in December 1987 by groups from the movement against Startbahn West in Frankfurt am Main . The background to this was the investigation and arrest by the law enforcement authorities into the homicides at Runway West on November 2, 1987. In the course of these investigations, many activists made statements with which they (often out of ignorance) incriminated themselves and others. The aim of the campaign was, on the one hand, to prevent further incriminating statements and, on the other hand, to ensure that statements already made are withdrawn in court. The campaign was picked up several times in the German radical left and is still a central point of reference for debates about the refusal to testify.
The campaigns to refrain from giving evidence call in particular to not respond to recruitment attempts by secret service agents and not to testify to the police and the judiciary . As a rule, those addressed should not only be silent towards police officers and public prosecutors , but also towards judges , even if
- they are on trial as a defendant and although a testimony could prevent their conviction or have a favorable effect on their sentence , it could, however, incriminate others; or when
- them as witnesses stand trial and in relation to the matter in question no right to remain silent nor evidentiary privilege can contend for the denial of the statement so with up to six months coercive detention may be assigned.
The campaign argues that any cooperation with law enforcement agencies would support them in their work of prosecution and repression. Even a statement that ostensibly only exonerates a certain suspect would reduce the group of possible perpetrators, bring the police and the judiciary closer to the actual perpetrator and thus be an indirect denunciation of another. The principle of solidarity therefore dictates that the police and the judiciary should not be provided with exonerating material as with any other information. This also includes public speculation on issues related to criminalization. At the same time, it is not advisable to use a defense strategy before making false statements. The basis of the strategy of not giving evidence are the assumptions:
- There are no exonerating statements
- there are no harmless statements
- there are no banal questions
- Statements do not protect against further summons.
The supporters of the campaigns disagree about the cases in which a statement exonerating the accused can be legitimate in court. Among other things, this was discussed in more detail on the basis of exonerating statements for the defendant Frank H. in the trial of the homicides at Startbahn West, in the trial on the occasion of the killing of Gerhard Kaindl and on the occasion of the trial against the Berlin Revolutionary Cells .
At the beginning of the 1990s the campaign was taken up by the Rote Hilfe eV and in 2000 the Rote Hilfe started a refusal to testify campaign again, this time under the slogan “Please don't say anything now”. With regard to appearing in and dealing with social media as well as the general use of new communication options, the original slogan has now been expanded to “Anna and Arthur shut up (continue to)!”.
Web links
- Campaign: Please don't say anything now! of the Red Aid eV
- When things get crazy - the insane become professionals . Brochure on withholding testimony and detention on the occasion of the proceedings because of the shots at the West runway. 1989
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolf Wetzel: Timeline of the history of Frankfurt Airport and the runway movement until today ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed August 30, 2011
- Jump up ↑ Wolf Wetzel: The runway movement's denial of testimony campaign 1987-1991 and its consequence, Rote Hilfe Zeitung 3/2011, SS 14-16
- ↑ Cf. Rote Hilfe Zeitung 3/2011 with a focus on refusal to give evidence
- ↑ Cf. Axel Hoffmann: Thoughts on Basics of Our Solidarity, Rote Hilfe Zeitung 3/2011, pp. 10-14 and Wolf Wetzel: The Startbahn Movement's denial of testimony campaign 1987-1991 and its consequences, Rote Hilfe Zeitung 3/2011, pp. 14– 16 and Initiative Libertad! : Background to the dispute in the Red Aid about refusal to testify
- ↑ Cf. u. a. the documentation of an excerpt from the debate in the Rote Hilfe Zeitung 3/2011, pp. 19–26
- ↑ See Klaus Viehmann : Entrance - Discharge? , March 1, 2002 and Some Autonomous People from Berlin and Frankfurt: Discussion Paper on the Occasion of the Trials against the Revolutionary Cells / Rote Zora , December 2000
- ↑ PDF: 1.41 MB, 50 pages . Brochure from the Federal Board of Red Aid eV Subject: “Please don't say anything now, refusal to testify”.
