Four Anarchists Arrested in Scuffle Over Olympic Torch

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Four anarchists were arrested Monday after briefly grabbing the Olympic torch from Italian track athlete Eleonora Berlanda as the relay passed through the northern Italian city of Trento. Runners escorting the flame snatched it back.

Four anarchists from the nearby town of Rovereto, Massimo, Daniele (Mike), Daniela, and Juan, were arrested and charged with theft, causing injury, violence, and resistance. Comrades of the anarchists distributed leaflets about the arrests and the exploitation, repression and industrial expansion related to the Olympics (the high-speed railway line between Italy and France, the militarization of the cities and valleys, the exploitation of immigrants' labour under threat of deportation, and the advertising of multinational corporations that rob and pillage resources).

Some corporate media outlets mistakenly refered to the anarchists who disrupted the torch relay as "The Disobedient Ones", refering to a protest organization that is not anarchist and which has hostile relations with some anarchists.

The 2006 Winter Olympics are to take place in Torino, Italy, in February.