Hostage
5th January 2010, 12:54
I don't know if anything related was ever posted recently, but since the start of the Greek uprising in December, 2008. There were a lot of cases which involved police torturing a lot of people which are not natively Greek, such as legal/illegal immigrants. Here's a recent article, dating 3rd Jan 2010 posted on libcom.org:
Two police officers and three police guards of the Acropolis police station have been arrested in relation to the torture of an man treated for his wounds in hospital.
5 policemen, two officers and two “special guards” have been arrested after they tortured a 30 year old man from Chile when he demanded access to a telephone in order to contact his lawyer. The arrested policemen claim the detained man tried to escape and the wounds inflected on his torso and legs for which he is being now treated in hospital are the result of their efforts to contain him. The tortured man has been visited in hopsital by the Secretary of the Ministry of Public Order and the Chief of Police in an unprecedented move of human rights concern by the notorious sector of the government. Moreover the Minister of Public Order has condemned the torture adding that he is “sending a clear message to all uniformed worker […] the abuse of power, torture and humiliation of human dignity is a sign of barbarity” claiming that policemen with no concern for the constitution will be expelled from the force and “puished paradigmatically”. The move to arrest the policemen is unprecedented in a country where torture against immigrants is endemic and no cop has ever been subject of disciplinary measures let alone legal persecution for it.
In effect the arrest of the 5 policemen and the rise of the torture case to a prime article of the headlines marks an interesting twist in the policy of the Socialist government whose pledge to erradicate police arbitrariness and brutality has up to now been no more than hot air. Such policy could be both a move of reclaiming the police force within social-democratic normality (a repetition of the 1981-83 ‘de-juntaization’ of the police) by purging extreme-right individuals, and a powerful propaganda weapon with respect to the vast majority of the people who distrust and loath the police and to the left which has been demanding an immediate cleanising if not disarming of the force since the Decmeber Uprising. The anti-cop sentiment is a central unifying principle between diverse sections of social discontent (from workers to pupils and from farmers to immigrants) in the country and is seen by the government as a great obstacle to achieving social concensus or so-called ‘national unity’ in view of the sweeping and most probably anti-popular reforms planned for the economic recovery of the state finances in the months ahead.
Original Article. (http://libcom.org/news/torture-under-acropolis-03012010)
Also in the comments section there is a parallel case, which happened around the same time, translated to English from a Greek anti-racist/fascist website. (http://www.antiracismfascism.org/)
On December 23, the same day that the Chilean immigrant Pedro Navarro was arrested and tortured (http://clandestinenglish.wordpress.com/2010/01/02/new-case-of-severe-immigrant-abuse-by-cops-of-the-acropolis-police-station/), African street vendors received the same treatment by police officers who participated in operations coordinated by Greek Police and the Municipality of Athens at the down-town Athens commercial streets. (http://clandestinenglish.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/manhunt-against-immigrant-street-vendors-in-athens-center/)
One of them, Joe Usman said:
I was arrested by three police men and a police woman at Ermou str. They handcuffed me, then took me to a dark spot near the church of Kapnikarea and one of them hit me with his knee at the stomach by pulling my head down. Then they took me to the police station, I was in great pain and ponaga much and I vomitted. They then took me to hospital. When we left the doctors gave me some document but the police took it from me. Within the Police Station I saw one more Senegalese guy being beaten very hard.
They left me free on December 30 “.
Gil Dawa said:
“Police arrested me on December 29 at 6 to 7 pm at Ermou str. I was on my way home, I was not selling anything. I asked them ‘do you need to see my papers and they said ‘ no ‘. They threw me down and raised my leg to my head. They handcuffed me and took me on foot at the Acropolis Police Station. On the way they hit me on my mouth. I was forced to go up the stairs with handcuffs and with my hands on my back; they kept shouting and kicking me. They told their superior that they did this because I was making fuss.
In my cell they stripped me off my clothes while I still I had the cuffs on and then beat me on my head, feet and hand with their arms and clubs. They photographed me naked and they were laughing shouting ”Fuck you black asshole, this is Greece, leave, go to Africa.” After laughing they were teasing my dick and put a finger in my ass. They let me go the next day; I went to hospital and the doctors gave me some paper [apparently about beating marks etc] “
Hope I posted it in the right forum, wasn't sure in which.
Two police officers and three police guards of the Acropolis police station have been arrested in relation to the torture of an man treated for his wounds in hospital.
5 policemen, two officers and two “special guards” have been arrested after they tortured a 30 year old man from Chile when he demanded access to a telephone in order to contact his lawyer. The arrested policemen claim the detained man tried to escape and the wounds inflected on his torso and legs for which he is being now treated in hospital are the result of their efforts to contain him. The tortured man has been visited in hopsital by the Secretary of the Ministry of Public Order and the Chief of Police in an unprecedented move of human rights concern by the notorious sector of the government. Moreover the Minister of Public Order has condemned the torture adding that he is “sending a clear message to all uniformed worker […] the abuse of power, torture and humiliation of human dignity is a sign of barbarity” claiming that policemen with no concern for the constitution will be expelled from the force and “puished paradigmatically”. The move to arrest the policemen is unprecedented in a country where torture against immigrants is endemic and no cop has ever been subject of disciplinary measures let alone legal persecution for it.
In effect the arrest of the 5 policemen and the rise of the torture case to a prime article of the headlines marks an interesting twist in the policy of the Socialist government whose pledge to erradicate police arbitrariness and brutality has up to now been no more than hot air. Such policy could be both a move of reclaiming the police force within social-democratic normality (a repetition of the 1981-83 ‘de-juntaization’ of the police) by purging extreme-right individuals, and a powerful propaganda weapon with respect to the vast majority of the people who distrust and loath the police and to the left which has been demanding an immediate cleanising if not disarming of the force since the Decmeber Uprising. The anti-cop sentiment is a central unifying principle between diverse sections of social discontent (from workers to pupils and from farmers to immigrants) in the country and is seen by the government as a great obstacle to achieving social concensus or so-called ‘national unity’ in view of the sweeping and most probably anti-popular reforms planned for the economic recovery of the state finances in the months ahead.
Original Article. (http://libcom.org/news/torture-under-acropolis-03012010)
Also in the comments section there is a parallel case, which happened around the same time, translated to English from a Greek anti-racist/fascist website. (http://www.antiracismfascism.org/)
On December 23, the same day that the Chilean immigrant Pedro Navarro was arrested and tortured (http://clandestinenglish.wordpress.com/2010/01/02/new-case-of-severe-immigrant-abuse-by-cops-of-the-acropolis-police-station/), African street vendors received the same treatment by police officers who participated in operations coordinated by Greek Police and the Municipality of Athens at the down-town Athens commercial streets. (http://clandestinenglish.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/manhunt-against-immigrant-street-vendors-in-athens-center/)
One of them, Joe Usman said:
I was arrested by three police men and a police woman at Ermou str. They handcuffed me, then took me to a dark spot near the church of Kapnikarea and one of them hit me with his knee at the stomach by pulling my head down. Then they took me to the police station, I was in great pain and ponaga much and I vomitted. They then took me to hospital. When we left the doctors gave me some document but the police took it from me. Within the Police Station I saw one more Senegalese guy being beaten very hard.
They left me free on December 30 “.
Gil Dawa said:
“Police arrested me on December 29 at 6 to 7 pm at Ermou str. I was on my way home, I was not selling anything. I asked them ‘do you need to see my papers and they said ‘ no ‘. They threw me down and raised my leg to my head. They handcuffed me and took me on foot at the Acropolis Police Station. On the way they hit me on my mouth. I was forced to go up the stairs with handcuffs and with my hands on my back; they kept shouting and kicking me. They told their superior that they did this because I was making fuss.
In my cell they stripped me off my clothes while I still I had the cuffs on and then beat me on my head, feet and hand with their arms and clubs. They photographed me naked and they were laughing shouting ”Fuck you black asshole, this is Greece, leave, go to Africa.” After laughing they were teasing my dick and put a finger in my ass. They let me go the next day; I went to hospital and the doctors gave me some paper [apparently about beating marks etc] “
Hope I posted it in the right forum, wasn't sure in which.