A report published on Monday, March 30 by Amnesty International reveals a pattern of serious human rights violations by Greek police and other law enforcement officials.
The report highlights allegations of excessive use of force and firearms, torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary detention and denial of prompt access to lawyers.
Allegations in Amnesty’s report, Greece: Alleged abuses in the policing of demonstrations, include:
l Two Amnesty International members beaten with truncheons during a peaceful protest;
l A 23-year-old man beaten, kicked and punched by riot police, sustaining multiple facial injuries;
l Lawyers detained and ill-treated by police, including being dragged along the ground and thrown into a police van;
l Detainees prevented from speaking to their lawyers.
Amnesty is calling on the Greek authorities to launch a commission of inquiry to investigate recent incidents and more systemic issues such as police training, safeguards to prevent ill-treatment and access to lawyers for detainees.
The call coincides with police and judicial investigations into the violent demonstrations that rocked Greece in December and January, sparked by the killing of 15-year-old Alexis Gregoropoulos by an officer serving as a special guard.
Nicola Duckworth, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International, said: ‘Time and again police officers in Greece have been accused of using excessive force against demonstrators or denying them their rights when in detention.
‘The police response to the recent unrest is the culmination of an entrenched pattern of serious human rights violations by law enforcement officials.
‘These incidents should be used as a catalyst by the government to launch a wide-ranging commission of inquiry that would investigate not only recent events but also systemic issues, including training of police on the use of firearms and of force.
‘The people of Greece have the right to proper policing in accordance with the government’s national and international obligations.’
Since the end of the demonstrations last January, Amnesty International has been receiving mounting allegations of violations by police.
The organisation has brought a number of cases from December 2008 and January 2009 to the attention of the Minister of the Interior, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, in which police officers were said to have arbitrarily arrested, ill-treated and detained peaceful demonstrators and prevented detainees, including minors, from promptly contacting their lawyers.
As well as an account of the fatal police shooting of fifteen-year-old Alexandros-Andreas (Alexis) Gregoropoulos in Athens, the report says: ‘Amnesty International has also received reports from Athens and other parts of Greece about arbitrary arrests, ill-treatment and the denial of prompt access to legal assistance.
‘The organization has raised four cases with the authorities, in which police officers, tasked with policing demonstrations in central Athens on 15 and 18 December 2008, were alleged to have subjected individuals, including demonstrators, to such violations of their rights.
‘Under international human rights law, every person arrested or detained has the right to be promptly informed of the charges against them (Articles 9(2) and 14(3)(a) of the ICCPR; Articles 5(2) and 6(3)(a) of the ECHR).
‘Moreover, international standards state that every person arrested or detained has the right to assistance of legal counsel (Principle 1 of the Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers). Furthermore, ensuring that a detained person has access to counsel is an important safeguard for the protection of rights, and in view of this, the UN Human Rights Committee has stressed that “all persons arrested must have immediate access to counsel”. Principle 7 of the Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers states that access to a lawyer must be granted promptly.
‘In one case, a 26-year-old student reported being subjected to ill-treatment and verbal abuse by riot police officers on 15 December.
‘She said that she was stopped by police while walking with her mother near the General Police Directorate of Attica (GADA) in Athens, near an area where a demonstration, in which she said she had not participated, had taken place earlier.
‘She said that she was ill-treated on arrest, and verbally abused with sexual remarks both during her arrest as well as the three and a half hours she spent in detention in the GADA.
‘During her detention, she was not allowed to have contact with her mother who was waiting outside, nor was she allowed to contact a lawyer.
‘She also reported being held with a 17-year-old detainee in the station lobby, where two police officers were also present.
‘According to her, the teenager was visibly distressed by having been allegedly ill-treated, and a woman who entered the room later and identified herself as the teenager’s lawyer told her of the teenager’s allegation that police officers planted evidence by placing rocks inside his pockets during his transportation to the GADA.
‘The student reported that throughout her arrest and detention, she repeatedly asked police officers about the reasons for her arrest and for the names of the arresting officers but received no reply.
‘She also reported that she repeatedly asked to see her mother, who was outside the station, but was refused.
‘In addition, when the teenager’s lawyer approached the student, the police officers present reportedly tried to prevent the lawyer from speaking to the student on the grounds that she already had a lawyer, although they knew this was not the case.
‘The lawyer was only allowed to speak to her after the lawyer stated that the student’s mother had appointed her as counsel for her daughter.
‘Amnesty International has received information about alleged violations of the rights of individuals, including children, arrested and detained in the town of Larisa on 8 December 2008.
‘It was reported that some children were ill-treated, that the specific rights of children were not respected, that individuals were denied prompt legal assistance, and that allegedly arbitrary charges were brought against them.
‘In total, 25 people were arrested in Larisa during the policing of demonstrations which had turned violent, and rioters destroyed bank buildings.
‘Twenty-one of those arrested have been charged under legislation relating to organized crime. Of these, 17 are children aged between 15 and 17, and four are adults.
‘The children were reportedly detained overnight at the local police station, while the four adults were, at the time of writing (March 2009), still in detention awaiting trial.
‘All of those arrested were also reportedly denied prompt legal assistance while in detention.’
