More testimonies of abuse and humiliation at the Acropolis Police Station Torture Chamber

source: movement “united against racism and the fascist threat”

On December 23, the same day that the Chilean immigrant Pedro Navarro was arrested and tortured, 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.

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] “

Manhunt against immigrant street vendors in Athens center.

source: athens indymedia

In the last two days in Athens downtown, particularly around the area of Ermou (High) Street, the police have launched a manhunt against  immigrants street-vendors, which has resulted in numerous injuries and an unknown number of arrests.

It is indicative that during a visit of comrades at a public hospital to support a wounded immigrant who had been arrested some hours ago, two more  immigrants, wounded on their chests, heads and legs by the cops came  at the same hospital.

The immigrant is kept under detention and will be led tomorrowat the Athens Courts at Evelpidon street, accused of resistance, disobedience and property damage .  Note that although he displayed his documents during the arrest, these “disappeared” after the arrest and he is now in risk of deportation.

Also, on 30 Decembe at noon one more immigrant street-vendor was led to court with the usual charges  cops accuse people of after beating them  (resistance to authority, disobedience, etc.); he has been released after a regular trial date was set.

Solidarity tomorrow at 10.00 at the Evelpidon courts is important.

There have also been reports of municipal police hunting street vendors who tide their large bikes furiously on the pavement and amidst people walking, posing serious safety threats.

Confiscation operation against street vendors in Athens

source: Athens Indymedia

A special police operation against immigrants street vendors took place on Saturday at 12:00  Victoria Square and Patission Street in the center of Athens.

During the operation, which lasted 20 minutes, and which was done in collaboration with the municipal police of Athens, the vendors left their merchanidise left their goods, and the cops confiscated them and transported them with 3 trucks to the warehouses of the City of Athens – probably to be shared among the uniformed employees of the mayor.

Cleaners march for Kouneva – Racist Police against Pakistanis in Aegaleo

update by the user taxikipali at libcom.org.

Cleaners march in Athens demanding Kouneva case to remain open

Submitted by taxikipali on Jul 3 2009

tags:

Cleaners of the autonomous PEKOP union march in Athens demanding that the case on the assassination attempt against their secretary, K. Kouneva, with sulfuric acid remains open.

Cleaners of the PEKOP union alongside more than 1500 solidarity protesters took to the sizzling streets of Athens on Thursday 2/7 to protest against the decision of the district attorney to close the case of the assassination attempt against Konstantina Kouneva, the cleaner union’s secretary last December by corporate thugs. Kouneva was attacked outside her home and forced to drink sulfuric acid which destroyed her digestive tract and large portions of her face; she is still struggling for her life in hospital. The protest march, which took place in a context of media efforts to recuparate the Kouneva issue, demanded an immediate end to “slave-trade in the public and private sectors”.

Meanwhile tensions in Athens remain high. On Thursday yet another police effort to impose an apartheid in the central square of Aegaleo, a proletarian suburb that has seen several fascist attacks against Pakistanis last year, with nazis attacking the workers in their very homes, was met with fierce resistance of bystanders who stopped the cops from brutalising and arresting immigrants. The tension rose further when the heckled policemen arrested an 80 year old woman who was trying to stop their racist attack. The angry crowd snatched the elderly woman from the cops, surrounded the police cars and forced the uniformed racists and a couple of their neo-nazi collaborators out of the square.

At the same time in down-town Athens the High Court Council came under attack by anarchists who smashed and burned the car of the incoming President of the Council, an infamous right-wing government crony. Earlier, antifascists had sabotaged the electric facilities of Stohos, the leading fascist weekly which has been promoting widespread anti-muslim, anti-jewish and anti-imigrant pogroms. As a result of the sabotage, the weekly issue of the bigot paper was not published causing big economic damages to the nazis.

On the urban guerrilla front, Athens was once again rocked by a huge explosion in the early morning of Friday 3/7, when a pre-announced bomb destroyed one of the central tax offices of the capital. Until now no guerrilla group has claimed responsibility for the attack which also destroyed a near-by McDonalds outlet but caused no human injuries.

Public Order Ministry’s agenda translates into everyday anti-immigrant terror…

Yesterday afternoon police and municipal police cops stormed down town Athens (Omonoia square) beating randomly immigrants. Municipal police kept hunting rabidly street vendors. Unfortunately, in Zinonos street some bus drivers were shouting “get them”. The police confiscated the vendors merchandise and kept beating them. When a witness (writing about it in Athens indymedia) reacted the police responded something like “get lost or you will get the same).

Today at 7 in the morning the riot police squad outside the Court of Appeals building as a group kept assaulting any immigrant who exited the building alone (the whole squad against one).  Bloody beating, racist swearing, threats and “don’t come back” warnings. With all this terroristic pressure by the police more and more people abandon the building everyday. There have been many reports of municipal police beating street vendors, confiscating their merchandise, stealing money and cell phones from them. (see this athens indymedia article about it).

Yesterday the Public Order Minister Markoyannakis said that the police faces two major challenges: illegal immigration and the action of anarchists. He added that the police will leave aside the issue of anarchists for now to tackle the illegal immigrants issue first.  For the latter, concentration camps are ready and waiting (source).  His plans for cleansing down town Athens from immigrants will be concluded in one month or so from now.