Memoria Mediterranea

For the release of Maysoon Majidi.

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Donna Vita Libertà. This is the cry shouted by the people in the picket who welcomed Maysoon Majidi who arrived at the courthouse in Crotone on the morning of July 24, inside the armored vehicle of the penitentiary police.

From nine until late morning the first hearing was held that opened the trial for the 27-year-old Kurdish activist, reporter and videomaker, arrested since last December on charges of smuggling after having landed together with 77 other migrants on the Calabrian coast of Crotone.

The request for the modification of the precautionary measure and the request for house arrest presented for Maysoon by the lawyer who represents her was rejected by the judge: Maysoon will remain in prison at least until the next hearing on September 18.

As soon as she heard the news, after hours of discussions involving the prosecutor, the lawyer and the judge, Maysoon stood up and, with an incredulous look, turned directly to the judge, began to explain with her own voice the reasons for her innocence, showing the photographic evidence that would exonerate her. Wondering why she is not believed, still deprived of freedom, Maysoon independently contested every defamatory accusation that was made against her.

First hearing of Maysoon Majidi trial, Crotone Court. Credit: Silvia Di Meo

A liberation that we also loudly supported from outside, animating the demonstration called to support Maysoon – and the fight she has been carrying out since her native land where she was persecuted for her commitment – to support Marjan Jamali, who in Calabria was hit by the same type of criminalization and all the other people accused and detained on charges of being “smugglers”, but not only. Our solidarity is in fact directed towards all the people unjustly in prison, not only on charges of smuggling. In fact, we are also united in the fight for the release of Heval Talip, a person of Kurdish origins who has lived in southern Italy for years and is currently in prison in Catania.

A mobilization that is linked to the demand for justice for all the victims of the border regime and for their families, for those people who – before being accused of the crime of smuggling or being imprisoned in the CPR camps or in other private places – die at sea, along the Mediterranean routes and are shrouded in oblivion and indifference.

Demonstration for the liberation of Maysoon Majidi, Court of Crotone. Credit: Silvia Di Meo

Just in these days, the judicial investigations have ascertained the delays and omissions in the rescue operations that led to the massacre of Cutro on February 26, 2023, where at least 94 people died and about ten are still missing. That the authorities are responsible for this massacre and that the massacre could have been avoided is now confirmed by the investigation from which the accusation of negligent shipwreck and multiple manslaughter emerges. From this certainty, the demands for truth and justice presented since the first day by the families and people who survived the massacre become even stronger today.

On the Cutro massacre, the only trial held so far was precisely that against the so-called smugglers, those who on that night would have guided the boat Summer Love from the Turkish city of Smyrna to the Italian coast of Cutro. A criminalizing and punitive logic condensed within that famous Decree to which the name of the place of a massacre has been shamefully associated (Law 50/2023) that has done nothing but exacerbate the repression against people on the move, denying them freedom and rights.

Despite being inevitably tried, after 208 days of prison and denied justice, after a hunger strike, Maysoon has demonstrated once again that the request for her freedom is neither manipulable nor negotiable.

Presidium outside the Court of Crotone. Credit: Silvia Di Meo

We will continue to maintain that Cutro is not a Decree, Cutro is a massacre. We will continue to argue that Maysoon is not a smuggler, but a free woman, an activist who fights and has fought for the rights of women and oppressed people.

Beyond the walls of cells and borders – from the Steccato della morte of February 26, 2023 to the cage where Maysoon is still unjustly confined – the cry for freedom and justice for all remains loud and strong.

While waiting to see each other again at the Palazzo di Giustizia in Crotone on September 18 – on the occasion of the next hearing of the trial against Maysoon Majidi – we launch a widespread invitation to social denunciation and to the fight for the liberation of Maysoon, Marjam, Talip and all the other unjustly detained people.

Maysoon free
Marjan Free
Talip free


Comitato Free Maysoon
Rete 26 febbraio

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