THE XENOGIANNAKOPOULOU SYNDROME

XENOGIANNAKOPOULOU SYNDROME, USING THE KANGAROO JUSTICE AS A POLITICAL TOOL TO GAG POLITICAL OPPONENTS

Dictator Aliyev, who suffers from the Xenogiannakopoulou Syndrome, hoodwinks to turn initiatives into reality and declares Azerbaijan’s enormous progress in all fields, not just oil fields! He mumbo-jumboes of the country’s very positive atmosphere and lists the country’s great freedoms: freedom of political activity, freedom of expression, freedom of media. Azerbaijan is proud of these freedoms, he bullshits.

On the eve of the Novruz holiday in Azerbaijan, Aliyev today signed a decree pardoning more than 100 prisoners, among them two activists imprisoned on politically motivated charges. This is incredibly happy news for all of those pardoned and their families, but there is little else to celebrate.

Bashir Suleymanli and Orkhan Ayyubzade, the activists, never should have been imprisoned in the first place. Suleymanli was serving three-and-a-half years, following efforts by the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center, where he was the deputy director, to investigate and reveal election fraud. The director, Anar Mammadli, remains in prison, despite calls from UN experts to release him. Both were convicted for bogus tax evasion and related offenses.

The truth about Azerbaijan is quite different from the picture painted by its dictator. In the past two years, Azerbaijani authorities have brought or threatened unfounded criminal charges against thousands of political activists, journalists, bloggers, and human rights defenders, most of whom are behind bars.

The Azerbaijani dictator is not alone in his capability for bare-faced falsehood. It’s a specific strain of Soviet and post-Soviet behavior, learned from the Communist Party and the KGB. If the leader says something, it is true, no matter what the evidence to the contrary. There are no political prisoners in Azerbaijan, says Aliyev, and we encourage a free media because it is important to our democracy. There is no point in putting on a play about depression in Belarus, an Alexander Lukashenko apparatchik tells the Belarus Free Theater, because there is no such thing as depression in Belarus! There is justice in Greece declare premier Che Pras, Paraskevopoulos of Minitrue, and Voutsis of Miniluv!

Political lies in functioning democracies tend to have to do with cover ups of personal or institutional failings. In an authoritarian society, with power utterly concentrated to the leader and his cadre, there is no such thing as an isolated failure. As a result, every aspect of life must be spun. All triumphs belong to the leader, all criticisms are propaganda, all failures sabotage. When there is no balance of power, is there really an objective truth? When, for example, the dictator Lukashenko told a journalist that journalist Irina Khalip, under house arrest, could leave Belarus any time she wanted, was that actually true? Was it true the moment he said it? Did it become true after he said it? And did it remain true?

This state of things raises a question for those of us seeking to better the lot of people living under regimes such as Belarus, Azerbaijan, and Greece: can we pounce on the moments when autocrats declare as fact something we know to be untrue, cling on until they actually make it true? Or does this merely confirm the idea that truth is whatever their whim makes it?

Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva, daughters of Aliyev, own most Azerbaijani telecoms. They own Azerfon, the country’s third-biggest company. Secret documents prove the daughters also own Azercell, Azerbaijan’s largest mobile phone business. That means the top three companies are owned by the Aliyev family.

The family owns most of the mobile market, a commercial dominance that raises serious questions about Internet surveillance and communications security within Azerbaijan. It may also help to explain complaints abot costly service.

Police detained Ayyubzade, a youth activist, last May for attending an unsanctioned protest in Baku. Ayyubzade was sentenced to 20 days for a misdemeanor, but before he was released, the authorities charged him with resisting police, a criminal offense. He was sentenced to two years in prison.

And the revolving prison door in Azerbaijan just spun again. Yesterday, Siraj Kerimli, an activist with the Musavat opposition political party, was sentenced to six years on trumped-up drug charges.

Dozens more are behind bars, like leading human rights activist Leyla Yunus, the top investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, the human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev, and the youth activist Rasul Jafarov, who planned a Sport for Rights campaign ahead of the June 2015 European Games in Baku.

We’d been hearing rumors of the pardons, mostly in response to calls for key interlocutors in the EU and elsewhere, to press Azerbaijan to release all of those imprisoned or awaiting trial on politically motivated charges. We had been told repeatedly that since there were likely to be pardons soon, they weren’t going to speak out about prisoners just yet.

Now that the pardons have been issued, while excellent news for those to be released, it’s clear that they signal no fundamental change in the government’s campaign to lock up and silence independent critical voices. The EU, US, the European Olympic Committees, and other key partners of Azerbaijan should urgently press the authorities to immediately and unconditionally free everyone still behind bars on bogus charges.

Your government is your #1 enemy. Brutal police and kangaroo courts are tools to enslave you to your government. But badges and benches do not grant extra rights. It’s your duty as a citizen to become a popopaparazzo, recording misconduct of police, prosecutors, and politicians. Use your smartphone to unmask cops and kleptocrats.

The political philosopher Edmund Burke once remarked that all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good folks to do nothing. A glaring example is my persecution by the government of Greece, which grossly violates my civil rights.

Martin Niemöller said: First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me!

EU practices double standards on civil rights. It’s freakish for EU to interfere in the civil rights of foreigners, but condone the abuse of my civil rights, a citizen of EU! EU should get its own house in order before lecturing others. EU should rein in barbaric Greece, the most corrupt country of Europe with prisoners of conscience, testilying police, malevolent prosecutors, perjurers, and stupidest jurists. Basil Venitis, venitis@gmail.com, http://venitism.blogspot.com

Greece is an uncivil nation with kangaroo justice, overcriminalization, brutal police, huge political corruption, persecution of dissident bloggers, huge bureaucracy, huge taxation, and 23% VAT. Freakish Graecokleptocrats use the kangaroo justice as a political tool to gag political opponents.

Every year, Graecokleptocrats receive myriad bribes and kickbacks. Many trains bought from Germany do not fit the rails, but they were bought just to generate bribes! In 2009, investigators of the Munich Prosecution Department uncovered a corruption affair, in which MAN has given huge bribes to Greek politicians to get large orders for overpriced trolleys. A streetcar named desire! These trolleys with huge markups are named bribes! But Greek prosecutors have started investigating this scandal just in September of 2012! One of those investigated is Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou, the minister who destroyed my life. Xenogiannakopoulou also served as general secretary of Pasok, the most corrupt political party on Earth!

I accuse the government of Greece for:

· Persecuting me for more than four years

· Stealing my life

· Stealing my computer and files

· Spreading lies about me on all Greek media

· Using the kangaroo justice as a political tool

· Postponing my trial nine times

· Locking me in jail without toilet and pillow for a night

· Taking away my hypertension pills

· Making me urinate in a bottle

· Humiliating me with handcuffs, fingerprints, and mug shots

On October 18, 2010, a gang of six brutal cops of the violent Greek Cyber-Crime Unit (CCU), a real godzilla, supervised by a dishonest prosecutor, a pathologic liar, a disgusting rat, raided my home in Athens and stole my computer, software, files, documents, and personal data. The brutal policemen locked me in jail for a night, they humiliated me with handcuffs, fingerprints, mug shots, and lies, leaked false information to the media parrots, and the corrupt Greek government initiated sham court proceedings for a stack of freakish trumped-up defamation charges! There was neither pillow nor toilet facility in my jail cell. I had to urinate in a bottle! I, a seventy-years-old man with high blood pressure, was not allowed to keep my hypertension pills with me. There was neither toilet paper nor soap in the whole CCU jail.

It’s been more than four years since the government of Greece stole my life, my computer, and my files. I have done absolutely nothing, and I am being persecuted by the Greek government without any real reason. My ordeal is against all rules of civil society and treaties that Greece has signed. Greece, a corrupt country without a functioning justice system, has gone bananas. Graecokleptocrats use the kangaroo justice as a political tool to gag political opponents. Graecokleptocrats think the laws exist to give them whatever they want! This is psoriasis of democracy, pure and simple.

Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou, Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs, sued me, and she wouldn’t show up in court! As a result, my trial has been postponed nine times so far. Xenogiannakopoulou, marilxen@otenet.gr or marilxen@gmail.com, continues to destroy my life without reason whatsoever. I could understand her vengeance, if I did something wrong. But I did absolutely nothing, and vindictive Xenogiannakopoulou barks at the wrong tree. If this is not kangaroo justice, what is it? Has a harmglad sadist minister the right to destroy an innocent citizen in cold blood? For God’s sake what kind of harmjoy is this tragedy anyhow? Basil Venitis, venitis@gmail.com, http://venitism.blogspot.com

Please email appeals to

gensecretary@justice.gov.gr, grammateia@justice.gov.gr, primeminister@primeminister.gr, ypourgos@justice.gov.gr, allusers@justice.gov.gr, a.tsipras@parliament.gr, at@syn.gr, ydragasakis@parliament.gr

· Calling for the immediate stop of the persecution of Basil Venitis.

· Stating that you believe these trumped-up defamation charges to be politically motivated and intended to prevent him exercising his right to freedom of expression against political corruption.

· Seeking assurances that the civil rights of Basil Venitis will always be respected.

http://venitism.blogspot.gr/2015/03/the-xenogiannakopoulou-syndrome.html