Free all Librarians!

Politicians and police in Italy have reacted rahter heavy-handedly against the (mostly but not exclusively) peaceful protests in Val di Susa [here is an aribitrary link from reuters that describes the present situation in relatively objective terms].

The following is a rather worrying development. Tobia Imperato, a writer and librarian, has been first arrested, and now placed under house arrest, under very flimsy evidence. He is awaiting trial [in Italy, this can take a long time.]

This is him. 

Below a rough translation of this statement

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Tobia Imperato was arrested on January 26, and from Februari 13 he has been under house arrest. He is not allowed to communicate with people other than those living in his house. Since the third of March he has been in hunger strike.

Tobia has filed requests to be allowed to go to  work - he is working as a librarian at the Piemontese Institute for the history of the Resistance and Contemporary Society, and to communicate with people other than is close family. Until now, these requests have been denied.

The present situation of isolation is in certain aspects worse than when he was in prison, whare at least he could write and receive letters. In fact, these relative heavy and [in Italy] unusual restrictions seem to be intended as a punitive measure.

Tobia is being accused of resisting against a police office during the evacuation of the Maddalena on June 27th. [OB: this is a long story. Very roughly, it was the closest to an OWS camp that Italy ever had.]

In the photographs that the police has provided, one sees only a contact between Tobia's hand and the arm of a police officer. From the evidence of another protester and a film on the internet, one can reconstruct what actually happened.  [OB: I did not find the film in question] The whole thing happened on a steep hillside near the highway, and the contact lasts only a couple of seconds. No violent action on Tobia's part is discernible.

Tobia has stated, when interrogated by the police, that he was holding on to the policemen because he was slipping backwards on the hillside.

If is certainly difficult to understand why such a small gesture as this must lead to a preventive measure so strong [remember that there is has been no trial yet, only an accusation]