Greek police altered released photos of arrested and abused anarchists.

[Sasha]

Greek police publish images of arrested and tortured anarchists that are altered in photoshop Saturday, February 2, 2013

Below is the inverted image of one of the photographs the Greek police have published (and many of the country’s media have reproduced) of four anarchists that were arrested and charged with two robberies in the village of Velvento, near the city of Kozani in NE Greece.

All other photos show that the arrested were clearly tortured (bruised eyes etc). It seems that the police have tried to very hastily conceal this by digitally altering the images. According to their metadata, at least three of the photos published by the police were altered in Photoshop CS4.



Source/photos; http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/2013/02/02/greek-police-publish-images-of-arrested-and-tortured-anarchists-that-are-altered-in-photoshop/

[p0is0n]

Does anyone have the original pictures?

[Sasha]

Some more on one of the arrested comrades;


Regarding Andreas-Dimitris Bourzoukos, one of the four arrested and tortured anarchists in Kozani

Sunday, February 3, 2013

For the blatant attempt by the police to hide their torturing of the four arrested anarchists see this article.

english original, via athens indymedia

After contacting the parents of Bourzoukos Andreas-Dimitris, we wanted to inform you about the following:

All the detainees have been moved to the General Police Headquarters of Attica since Saturday February 2nd (very late in the evening).

In the morning the parents managed to get in contact with their children, as did their lawyers. Until then, the police denied all their requests.

They were given only 15 minutes at the 12th floor of the General Police Headquarters of Attica.

Andreas-Dimitris Bourzoukos was handcuffed to the chair during the whole time.

He informed us that in the cells where he was detained in Kozani he was handcuffed with his hands behind his waist. They placed a hood on his face, made him kneel and beat him for four hours on his head, his face and his stomach, and his hair was pulled out by force. This happened without any resistance from his part. They also threatened him and insulted him in a vulgar way. The consequences of these tortures were the following: blood in the urine, severe dizziness, headaches, swellings on his whole face, contusions on both eyes, bruises and ecchymoses everywhere.

His parents report that his face was non-recognizable and his voice altered from all the beatings at his jaw.

During the last three days he has only drunk bottled water, while his parents were not allowed to give him packaged food and juices.

All the above are not published in order to victimize the detainees, but in order to publicize the tortures and the “legal” violence of the state apparatus.

Despite everything, Andreas-Dimitris Bourzoukos is strong, has kept his dignity and his morale is not shaken.

Power to the detainees.

[Mather]

Horrific news, but not surprising.

Solidarity with all anarchists and workers in Greece and I hope that they organise to counter such attacks in the future.

[brigadista]

this sounds like the old Junta- i really hope Greece will prevail and not go back to those dreadful days....my solidarity also

[Mather]

this sounds like the old Junta- i really hope Greece will prevail and not go back to those dreadful days....my solidarity also

The vast majority of police, military officers and civil servants who worked under the former junta kept their jobs with the restoration of bourgeois democracy back in 1974. Outside of the very small sircle that made up the former junta, very little was done to prosecute those responsible for crimes committed under junta rule.

Such a legacy is one of the reasons for why the Greek police are so brutal and susceptible to fascism.

[ellipsis]

more images here (https://dogmaandgeopolitics.wordpress.com/2013/02/03/greek-police-publish-images-of-arrested-and-tortured-anarchists-that-are-altered-in-photoshop/)

[p0is0n]

wow those are some really badly edited photos.

solidarity with our greek friends and comrades in these times of struggle.

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

Solidarity to the victims of the Greek authorities and GD (not that there's much difference between them now).

[The Jay]

There isn't much to say about this that isn't obvious to everyone. I really hope that those cops have an accident of some sort, preferably one that cripples them and turns them into those "social leeches" that they hate so much.

[Os Cangaceiros]

I don't even see why the cops attempted this pathetic "cover up". It's obvious to anyone that these guys got their asses kicked while in custody.

[DoCt SPARTAN]

Horrific news, but not surprising.

Solidarity with all anarchists and workers in Greece and I hope that they organise to counter such attacks in the future.

I hope I hear soon this has to be dealt with.

[Sasha]

some updates on the arrested anarchists and the police oppression;

Exclusive photos: police’s Special Anti-terrorist Unit enter hospital’s Emergency Department while tortured anarchist is treated by doctors (http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/2013/02/06/exclusive-photos-polices-special-anti-terrorist-unit-enter-hospitals-emergency-department-while-tortured-anarchist-is-treated-by-doctors/)

Wednesday, February 6, 2013
For background to the case see: Greek police publish images of arrested and tortured anarchists that are altered in photoshop (http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/2013/02/02/greek-police-publish-images-of-arrested-and-tortured-anarchists-that-are-altered-in-photoshop/); Regarding Andreas-Dimitris Bourzoukos, one of the four arrested and tortured anarchists in Kozani (http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/2013/02/03/regarding-andreas-dimitris-bourzoukos-one-of-the-four-arrested-and-tortured-anarchists-in-kozani/) and statement by three of the anarchists arrested for the bank robbery in Kozani (http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/2013/02/06/statement-by-three-of-the-anarchists-arrested-in-kozani/).
via e-mail:

- The place where these photos were taken is the emergency department/surgery of the Evagelismos hospital on February 3d, 2013, during the transfer of A. Bourzoukos. The department had no access to the exterior of the hospital, let alone the room where they took A.M. in order for him to be examined.
- As it is obvious from the photographs, the members of police’s anti-terrorist squad (EKAM) are inside the place, fully armed – a practice that is not allowed, as the medical staff kept whispering between them. When the surgery department’s head asked them to let him examine Bourzoukos without the presence of armed men, they refused to leave, since they would be violating their commanders’ orders. He then asked them to stay (which was already against the rules) within the surgery space, but outside the door of the room where he would be examining Bourzoukos, but they refused, once again. Why? There was no access to the room from the outside, unless one was to blow up the entire building – and it was equally impossible for Bourzoukos, say, to take the doctor hostage. Beaten across his entire face, “without a bone that wasn’t broken”, as they said, and with his hands cuffed behind his back.
- He was then examined and (the best part of it all) the men of the anti-terrorist unit then asked for the names of the doctors, which were not handed to them, of course.
- Could it be that medical privacy has been abolished? Perhaps along with university asylum, which was hiding such a “dangerous” criminal inside the campus of Mytilini [trans. where Bourzoukos was studying]?
http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/ekam1.jpg (http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/ekam1.jpg)
http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/ekam2.jpg (http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/ekam2.jpg)





Statement by three of the anarchists arrested for the bank robbery in Kozani (http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/2013/02/06/statement-by-three-of-the-anarchists-arrested-in-kozani/)

Wednesday, February 6, 2013
greek original (https://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1455187)
We steal a couple of words from the cells of the detention centre where we are held hostage, in order to state our aims and our intentions and to clear up the air regarding the recent events.
As Anarchists, we deem the choice of a bank robbery as a conscious act of resistance. Our act did not aim at the creation of personal wealth. The attack against the temples of capital is part of our revolutionary activity as a whole.
Regarding our torturing by the forces of repression, we do not want this to comprise a point for our victimisation. We expected nothing less from the enemies of freedom. Let’s not forget how many people have been crushed inside their police stations and their prisons. Let the marks of our torturing comprise yet another occasion for rage to turn into action.
Against the institutional representatives of justice, our position shall be irreconcilable and tenacious.
WE DON’T COOPERATE – WE DON’T APOLOGISE
LONG LIVE ANARCHY
The Anarchists
Nikos Romanos
Andreas-Dimitris Bourzoukos
Giannis Michailidis
PS. A longer statement by all four of us will follow, regarding our case.





“One word only: dignity” (http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/2013/02/06/one-word-only-dignity/)

Wednesday, February 6, 2013
A poster in relation to the events of Kozani (http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/2013/02/02/greek-police-publish-images-of-arrested-and-tortured-anarchists-that-are-altered-in-photoshop/)
http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/afisa-aksioprepeia1.jpg (http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/afisa-aksioprepeia1.jpg)

One word only: dignity
What charge is more beautiful than the robbery of a bank?
And yet the comrades were not beaten for “breaking the law”.
They were beaten for their conscious attack against the state monopoly of violence.
And they stood up against the mechanisms and their violence, just like it is fitting for every revolted person.
Not a word to the pigs, swearwords to the judges and the journalists
Let the oppressors realise this.
Neither the torturing,
nor the pillorying,
Cannot discipline all those who resist their commands.
They cannot dry the lust for a free life
Cops, judges, politicians
you have no reason to sleep in peace
Solidarity to the 4 charged for the robbery of the bank in Kozani
anarchists for individual and social emancipation

[LiveOnYourFeet]

I feel sad that the Greek state tortures my comrades, but we must live on. Solidarity with Greek anarchists, I hope you can take down these fascists before they take down more of you.

[Sasha]

“What is that you do not understand, mister Prime Minister?” Thursday, March 14, 2013 via borderlinereports

A magazine cover showing a photoshoppedimage ofthe Greek Prime Minister with torture scars on his face, in direct reference to the Greek Police’suse of torture, sparked controversy, with MPs maintaining that it is “an invitation to terrorism”. Yet questions over the recent incident where the Greek Police presented to the public a series of photoshopped images of youths arrested on robbery charges in an attempt to hide evidence of brutality, as well as the statement by the Minister of Public Order that this was done so that they are “recognizable”, remain painfully under-addressed, while claims of torture and police brutality keep mounting.

Publishing the photographs and personal information of citizens arrested on various charges, and asking the public to provide additional information on other crimes they may have committed, is one of the most controversial practices favored by the Greek Police today. Greek law states that the publication of photos or data of arrested persons awaiting trial is prohibited, except in cases of public danger. One is hard pressed to understand what sort of “public danger” is averted through the publication of photos of arrested demonstrators or even HIV positive women charged with prostitution, nevertheless the Police keep doing it and the judicial authorities keep supporting the practice.

Recently, however, this controversial practice was taken to a new level. The Police published photos of four youths arrested on robbery and terrorism charges.

Three of those arrested, as presented in the first set of images released by the Police

When reporters and members of the public pointed out that the photos had evidently been photoshopped, and rather crudely for that matter, the Police finally released several unaltered photos of those arrested. In the second set of photos, it was revealed they had been brutally beaten.

The same three, in the second set of images

The Minister of Public Order Mr Nikos Dendias was then asked why the first series of photos had been altered. His reply was that it was done so that the accused would be “recognizable”.

The Minister of Public Order when asked why the first series of photos had been altered, replied was that it was done so that the accused would be “recognizable”

Internal Affairs were quick to clear the Police of any wrongdoing. A hasty inquiry found that the accused had been wounded during the struggle that led to their arrest. This is hard to believe. For one, the accused were armed with assault rifles and the Police disarmed them, which makes it implausible that the arrest led to the kind of prolonged fistfight that could have resulted in such beatings. Secondly, before the Internal Affairs inquiry was undertaken, local Police Authorities where the arrests took place gave a Press conference in which they mentioned nothing about a struggle during the arrest. On the contrary, they pointed out that no one was hurt. And the lawyers for the accused subsequently reiterated the sadly not unheard of police practice of beating handcuffed detainees.

What makes the Police’s acquittal seem even more facile, is that this is far from an isolated incident. A few months ago, forensic reports showed extensive beatings and even taser gun scars on detainees – even though the Minister of Public Order vehemently denied any wrongdoing in Parliament. When we interviewed him for UNFOLLOW magazine, he again denied any wrongdoing, despite the forensic reports. The Minister even said he was going to sue the Guardian over a report on the Greek Police’s use of torture. Up to now, of course, he has done nothing of the sort.

Moreover, these incidents appear against a background of a torrent of complaints for abuse and torture by the Greek Police, as reported by Amnesty International, which also documents 12 cases where Greece has been convicted by the European Court of Human Rights for police crimes.

Cover of UNFOLLOW 15 (March 2013)

In the March issue of UNFOLLOW magazine, we decided on a symbolic reversal. We photoshopped some torture scars onto the face of the Prime Minister of Greece, rather than taking them off. The caption reads: “Photoshop on the Prime Minister. Politics must be recognizable”.

Upon publication, the first to react was the director of the Prime Minister’s Press Office Mr Giorgos Mouroutis, who called via twitter for a district attorney to intervene. At least three MPs for Nea Dimokratia, the leading party in Greece’s government coalition, concurred on the following day that the cover is an invitation to terrorist action against the Prime Minister. Two of them, Mr Michelakis and Mr Georgiadis paraded the cover in morning TV shows –though they were saying that it had to be suppressed–and attempted to turn the issue into a shouting match with SYRIZA, the Main Opposition party, asking it to condemn the magazine cover! Mainstream TV stations repeated their statements in their main news shows as fact, without seeking any comment from UNFOLLOW. And finally, the Prime Minister Mr Antonis Samaras, in an interview in Axia newspaper, also connected the magazine cover to SYRIZA, and said: “Have they [SYRIZA] seen what their own magazines and journalists that they protect are publishing? They even have me on the front page, shot in the head using photomontage, unprecedented brutalization. They have not denounced it. […] Let them know this: They are not going to terrorize us…”

Our cover illustrates our position, founded on our reports, that the main perpetrator of undemocratic violence in Greece is your Government. What is it that you do not understand?”

UNFOLLOW published a statement on its website, where it outlines the reasons for widespread concern over police torture in Greece, and points out the following:

“Our cover makes a direct reference to Greek Police torture practices, unheard of in a democratic country. […] We maintain that the repeated attempts to cover up a regime of torture leads to the conclusion that this is systematic policy. The leader of the Government is evidently the architect of this policy.

We further maintain that such undemocratic violence and suppression of human rights are the most barbaric aspect of a political deviation, which includes sidestepping the Parliament and democratic process, “investments” that are damaging to the public interest, and the manipulation of free public discourse. Solid reports on all these have been published in our magazine.

Mr Prime Minister, our reports cast severe doubts on the democratic nature of you government. You have nothing to say on this, but instead try to obscure the harsh yet obvious political irony of our cover by presenting yourself as a victim. You are not a victim, you are a victimizer.

Mr Prime Minister, you further attempt to turn a poignant and well-founded journalistic critique into a conflict with the Opposition. What the Opposition does or does not condemn concerns us only to the extent that we follow it in our capacity as journalists. You may be used to Media that function as branches of party Press offices, but we are not one of those.

Our cover illustrates our position, founded on our reports, that the main perpetrator of undemocratic violence in Greece is your Government, the authorities over which it presides, and the policies it implements.

What is it that you do not understand?”

Source with images: http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/2013/03/14/what-is-that-you-do-not-understand-mister-prime-minister/