On Friday, the 7th February in the early evening, police evicted the “silent squat” in Neklanova street in Prague 2, used exclusively for housing. The house owned by an Italian company who have cleared the house besides one tenant who welcomed the ‘squatters’. During the intervention, which was without unjustified violence by the security forces, sixteen people were arrested, including several onlookers who came to support the squatters.
The following days saw noise protests in solidarity with those arrested and in court. Court cases ongoing. Update to follow.
Translation of the press release on the Neklanova eviction.
– February 10th, 2014
On 7.2. 2014 The eviction took place in Neklanova street in Prague of the long dilapidated house. We write this press release to debunk some of the circumstances arising around this eviction. The owner of the house, the police and the mainstream media have failed to report accurately about the events.
The house is owned by the company Staropramenná 3, one of the many companies with Italian executive Stefan Camnasien who owns unused property in Prague.
Mr. George Kubalík, 22 year tenant of the house on Neklanova Street has experienced a long and complicated situation and is only still living in the house thanks to the courts decision on ‘ineligibility prior notice’. Mr Kubalík became the target of repeated infringements by the owners of the company and the drug users who sometimes occupied other parts of the building, hence welcoming the squatters into the house 6 months ago.
Over the last 6 months whilst living in the house we have repaired floors, walls and chimneys and brought the home into a better state than it was at any time in the last year. The owner or manager of the house do not fill their obligations to look after the property, despite being notified about this condition on several occasions. They claim to attend to the house on a weekly basis to meet these conditions, however they also claim that they do not know how long the squatters have been occupying the building. Despite this, the police continued to evict the house without in any way investigating the background of the case and the possible legitimate use of the house by squatters. The police served only as a tool in the hands of the freeholder and cemented his actions and legalised his malpractice.
During the eviction the police acted unreasonably and deliberately provoked conflict, whereby wrongly accusing four people of attack and aggression. Another point that we would lie to dispute is the arrest and indictment of all persons who at the time of eviction were present in the house, without any way to verify who stays in the house, and who came to help the squatters move their possessions.
Nobody was prompted to leave the house, there had been no warning that anyone had committed an unlawful act, still, everyone was directly arrested and later charged. The allegations made against the squatters was abstraction of electricity, however all of the electricity had been paid for.
For the above reasons on Tuesday (11th Feb) at 10am in front of 3 Necklanova Street a press conference (was) held.
For original texts see praha.squat.net
Text and Photos here: http://a2larm.cz/2014/02/fotogalerie-vyklizeni-ticheho-squatu/
