Translation: Thea is finally free! 💚 After Mönchengladbach had already lifted the arrest warrant against Thea before the weekend, Saarbrücken also finally lifted it on Tuesday. Thea was arrested on September 25th after a bannerdrop at Saarland University, protesting the plans to cut the Hanni forest. They were charged with "tätlicher Angriff" (assault) and "Körperverletzung" (bodily harm) in the context of the Lützerath eviction. The cops in Saarbrücken then quickly added another charge during the arrest: "assault by spitting bloody slime." You can probably guess who was assaulted here. Theas imprisonment had to do with them not giving identification when they were arrested and with the long time it took to verify their assigned identity. At first, Thea was in U-Haft (pre-trial detention) in Saarbrücken, where they were denied their right to visitors. Then, Thea was transferred to Willich, and for a few days, we didn’t know where they were. It was difficult for Thea to contact their lawyer there. Letters were given to them as photocopies, and stamps and similar things were not forwarded to them. Also, some letters were missing. Thea was imprisoned in men's prisons as a nonbinary person. Trans and nonbinary people are particularly affected by violence, discrimination, harassment, and abuse in prisons. Often, their needs are not sufficiently considered when they are assigned to binary-segregated prisons, and they receive inadequate medical care and support. They frequently experience even greater social isolation than what is already the case in prisons, as they are often isolated from other prisoners or have to do so for their own safety. Prisons are not places of justice, but of oppression. They are symbols of a society that refuses to question the roots of inequality and violence. In a capitalist system based on exploitation, hierarchy, and the maintenance of existing power relations, prisons are used as tools of social control and discipline. Prisons isolate, criminalize, and dehumanize people, cement social inequalities, and do not lead to people committing fewer crimes after their time in prison. We will still be holding our assembly/protest against prisons and repression tomorrow at 7 PM in front of the JVA (prison) in Saarbrücken, at the Bellevue bus stop. Join us! 🔥