"Individual events" of greek police cruelty, 1996-2006

This is a text taken from the Athens Indymedia website. It is a catalogue almost only as you will see about murders inflicted by policemen since 1996, it doesn't include all the killings from 1974 when Greece became a democracy in her modern history (in previous greek democracies through the 20^th century, apart from the dictatorships of course, communists were illegal so I can not accept the constitutions as democratic). It doesn't include also the everyday insults that some people receive in their contacts with the police or the extended abuses, vocal or physical, that riot police men systematically inflict towards demonstrators or unlucky passers-by. This bloody catalogue proves the opposite of what the present government of greece has named “individual events”. This was an unlucky statement that the events of police violence are individual and disconnected between each other. Of course it has to be reminded that whatever the government (of the right wing Nea Democratia now or the so-called socialists PA.SO.K/Greek Socialist Party before them) the greek police remained all these years violent and in these respects illegal, which shows in my opinion the degree of democracy that this country has managed to achieve in real terms.

20/1/96 While police was “wiping” (arrest to deport) immigrants in Scala of Oropos (central Greece) policeman Dionisis Karakaidos killed an Albanian immigrant.
6/4/96, Policeman Savas Agapiou murders the 25 year old Apostolis Keramidas
14/6/96 The rural police officer Athanasios Matos murders the 20 year old Fadil Nabouzi, for two watermelons
5/6/96, the policeman Iraklis Nikolakopoulos kills Giorgos Fragkogiannis
23/6/96, The anarchist Hristoforos Marinos is being murdered by special forces in the cabin 53 of the boat Pegassos
10/11/96, the traffic police officer Dim. Trimis kills the Roma Tasos Mouratis, who was down the ground on standstill
8/2/97, 19 year old Erion looses his life by a “ricochet” (this is the most common excuse in the court, alongside the accidental pulling of trigger because the policeman lost his balance) from the gun of the policeman Miltiadis Andreopoulos
15/4/97, Policeman Stergios Tagaras murders two Albanians in the city of Kastoria
25/5/97, 28 year old Filippos Papadopoulos is being shot countless times by port policemen who chase him because he took for a ride an abandoned fishing boat.
3/8/97, 26 year old Ilias Meksis was murdered by the policeman Tsagrakos, because he was driving opposite in a one-way street.
18/3/98, 29 year old farmer Giannis Kehaitis is being murdered “accidentally” by border policemen near the city of Kastoria
2/4/98, 29 year old roma Aggelos Tzemal is being shot dead by a policeman in Thessaloniki
27/5/98, 30 year old Efstratios Kirellis was murdered in the area of Ksanthi by police
5/6/98, 28 year old Bokari Baho shot dead by border police. They shot on the air to scare him
October '98, Polish Sbobek Miesic dies in the cells of Meligalas, because police contrary to the orders of a doctor denied to transfer him to a hospital
23/10/98 17 year old Serb school student Marco Boulatovic is being shot dead in Thessaloniki by the policeman Vandoulis because he was “suspect of stealing” (the kid was with a serbian school visiting Greece)
27//1/99, The Policeman K. Toltsidis murders 23 year old G. Migkipis in Thessaloniki.
13/3/99, In the city of Kozani the policeman Athanasios Kanavas murders the Albanian Arben Vezi
16/7/99, Police murders the Albanian Arben Soufa in the city of Florina
16/1/00 24 year old roma Th. Vasilopoulos is murdered by a policeman in Aspropirgos outside Athens
19/1/00, 20 year old Romanian Vasilie Ion is being murdered by policemen in Vathis square (Athens)
22/2/00, Policeman kills the Romanian Nicolai Gorea in Petroupoli (Athens)
25/3/00, 17 year old Nikos Leonidis is shot dead by the plain clothes policeman Atmatzidis in Thessaloniki
20/2/01, 23 year old Mih. Kivotos dies in Koridallos' prison. He had heart problems and a serious form of anaemia, but the prison officials ignored his demands to to get transfered to a hospital
24/10/01, The policeman G. Tilianakis murders in Zefiri (Athens) the 21 year old roma Marinos Hristopoulos
21/11/01, The police man Giannis Rizopoulos murders the 20 year old Albanian Sedak Selnikou in Amerikis square (Athens).
1/12/01, Border policemen shoot against two young Albanians in a small border village of Thesprotia. The one dies.
23/9/03 18 year old Albanian Voulnet Bititsi shot dead by a border policeman in his attempt to cross the greek albanian borders
7/5/03 “Mysterious” death of the 25 year old Aristidis Neofotistos in the police station of Nea Philadelphia (Athens). He went in for an “identification” and left tortured and dead
24/9/03 Border policemen who were chasing immigrants, cross the borders at Ierapigi of Kastoria and kill a 18 year old Albanian
9/12/03 22 year old Iraklis Maragkakis fell dead from police bullets because the car he was in didn't stop in a police barricade at Anogeia of Rethimno (Crete)
13/1/04 42 year old Mohamet Hamout dies from “natural causes” while he was in custody in the police station of Rethimno (Crete). The forensic evidence showed abuse and beatings.
13/3/04 In the cells of the police station of Vironas (Athens), the 36 year old Polish Gianteous Kotseva, who waits for his deport, dies under unknown circumstances.
21/12/04 A group of 15 policemen of the police station of Vironas cruelly abuse at least 40 Afgan immigrants (denuding, beating of fingers/”falagga”, virtual shootings, and hard beating)
17/11/2006 . Cypriot student Augoustinos Dimitriou is cruelly beaten by 8 plain clothes police without any reason in Thessaloniki. Policemen state that that he fell and got injured on a “zarntiniera”, a thing where they plant trees on the street. Unfortunately for them there is a TV camera that recorded the whole event.

We do not forget

16/11/1980 Stamatina Kanelopoulou and Iakovos Koumis are beaten to death by riot police in the annual rally in honour of the Polytechnic School revolt of 1973
17/11/1985. 15 year old Mihalis Kaltezas was shot dead on the back by the policeman Athanassios Melistas. The murderer policeman was declared innocent.