Hey friends,
Last weekend, E from Cistem Failure got arrested during the Pride Parade in Oslo. Unexpectedly, E was not released, and instead was held in the police station over the weekend before being brought to court today. The judge decided today not to release E, so they are currently being held on remand in custody until their hearing, which must happen in the next 28 days. At the hearing it will be decided if they are guilty or not and what their possible sentence will be (their lawyer expects between 20 and 40 days in prison). However, the time they spend in prison on remand will be subtracted from their final sentence. So if for example they wait 20 days until their hearing, and then get a sentence of 20 days, then they will have already served their time.
They have been charged under Straffelovens §115, for attacking the highest state bodies’ activities. They are accused of throwing a pie in the face of Solveig Horne: a homophobic, sexist, racist politician from the right-wing Progress Party, who had the nerve to march at the front of the Pride Parade. She is the Norwegian Minister for Equality, Children and Social Inclusion. She is known for victim blaming, homophobic remarks [“Is it okay that kindergartens read gay fairy-tales for young children?”] and racism. The Progress Party is a known racist party that gives zero fucks about refugees.
Anyway, we think it is strange that in general politicians are leading Pride — have they forgotten about Stonewall? People can have Pride as long as it means assimilating into capitalism and shit. I mean, why be homophobic when queers also have voting rights and have money to buy things with? The Pride Parade in Oslo gave their ‘Solidarity Prize’ this year to the fucking police…
Anyway. They are gonna be in jail for a bit and it would be cool if peeps would send letters, talk about the case, play our music, do a soliparty, write a song. If you want to know more or get updated, or do something or just have chat you can email this address.
Until then, none are free until all are free.
You can send letters (until we have a better address) here:
Oslo ABC, E
Postboks 6689 St.Olavs plass
0129 Oslo
Norway