" 28th of December 2003 I was granted leave from Spanish prison. I decided not to present myself for my further sentence, but to flee and go in hiding. To make this possible many comrades gave me a lot of support and money. Then I started travelling through Europe to make contacts and develop political activities. Everywhere I encountered a lot of solidarity and support.

In Belgium I decided to continue my travels through Germany to Czech Republic. I decided to buy a car. For safety reasons, I wanted a legal car, so I sent my sister money with the request to buy me a good and fast car and to inscribe it on her name. As Begoña would bring the car to Belgium, we could meet again.

As planned, we soon met in Belgium. Plans were made for Begoña to return by train to Karlsruhe, as I considered my situation, being a fugitive, an unnecessary risk for her safety. This resulted in an argument as my sister wanted to accompany me longer. We agreed to drop her of at a railway station just across the German border. We considered Aachen or Köln depending on the connections. This was heard by a distant acquaintance of mine whom I had met in Belgium, the here charged Bart de Geeter. He requested a lift, to save him the train ticket. He wanted to visit his girlfriend. As my sister was already in the car I agreed to take Bart also, hoping we would not encounter a police control. The two passengers, Begoña and Bart, where unaware until the incident in Aachen that Jose and me were armed. This subject was never discussed, since it was none of their business. Jose and me were armed because we were fugitive. For the same reasons I also possessed a wig, to change my looks. It was a Native American wig, from a party in Belgium. With Jose I had agreed only to use the weapons to deter police in case of a control, to allow fleeing. It was nor in our intention to aim at people neither to injure or certainly not to kill anybody. I have to note here that in Spain officers immediately surrender when at gunpoint. As such I couldn’t have foreseen what happened in Achen. Both José and I have gone trough to much in Spanish prisons to return voluntarily. I don’t want to go into to much detail here about the torture practices in Spain. The isolation in FIES, where one is deprived from any social contact is unbearable. Even basic medical care is not guaranteed for FIES prisoners. On top of psychological repression of isolation, there is also physical torture as electro shocks, suffocation trough "bolsa"-torture and other humiliating practises as appearing naked in front of the screws. About what we have gone trough, Mr Hernandez could give more details ; he has documented a lot. Because of the repetitive nature of different torture techniques used, I cannot recall what has happened when or where exactly.

Even though we have considered the theoretical possibility of a control here in Aachen, we both freaked out and overreacted. Especially when we took the married couple Schulz in the car. This was not agreed and happened in an atmosphere of confusion since the officers didn’t react as expected. In the car I tried to reassure them, explaining we are anarchists and we intended them no harm. Further I have to inform you that Bart didn’t get in the car willingly, but because I ordered him to. I didn’t want to leave him there with the police because I didn’t know him, and as he knew that Begoña was my sister, he could have betrayed my identity. As for Begoña, I hadn’t seen her anymore during this situation, but I was sure she would never betray me.

During the flight in Aachen town centre, we tried to shape off our pursuers. Here I shot a couple of times in the air, as I remarked before, not to hit anyone, but to deter the police from pursuing. With the last shots I tried to disable the car. If looking at the impacts, one can see that I only aimed for the tires and the cooling. If I, as the prosecutor claims, had been willing to shoot someone, I could have done that already at the service station. I aimed at the tires of the pursuing vehicle, when both vehicles where at standstill. Obviously I didn’t want to injure anybody. I wanted to deter the police and in ideal situation disable the tires, in which I succeeded, after which the police fled. At the first opportunity, we released our hostages. Here Bart also wanted to run, but I forbade him to and ordered him to come further with us. Then we fled into the garage. Here it appeared to me that with the means I was prepared to use, we would not get away. There was a risk for escalation and I didn’t want that. I thought that maybe Bart could escape, since police were not looking for a man on his own, so I gave him my money and told him to flee. Jose and I waited a couple more moments before leaving the garage to surrender. We didn’t resist our arrest any further.

I also want to put clear that we weren’t planning any bank robberies as the prosecutor puts it. I had sufficient funds and had support from comrades. I would have never taken the risk of something like that when fugitive. As my material needs are very limited, there was no reason to commit any robberies. "

Gabriel Pombo da Silva