Greece: Arbitrary arrest and subsequent release of Mr. Theo Alexandridis

Case GRC 211005. ESCR

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Concern
Arbitrary arrest / Release


The International Secretariat of OMCT requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in Greece.

Brief description of the situation:

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM), a member of the network, about the arbitrary arrest and subsequent release of Mr. Theo Alexandridis, GHM’s legal advisor.

According to the information received, on the evening of October 13, 2005, Mr. Theo Alexandridis was detained illegally for four hours in a police station in Aspropyrgos, after he defended the right of Roma children to go to school from which racist parents were trying to expel them and after he got harassed, pushed and insulted for that.

Indeed, on October 6, 2005, parents-members of the school’s Parents and Guardians Association did not allow eight Roma children, living in the Roma settlement located in the “Psari” area and attending evening classes at the 10th and 11th Primary Schools of Aspropyrgos (which are housed in the same building), to enter into the school, telling them that a “gentlemen’s agreement” had been reached between the Association and the Roma to the effect that Roma children would not attend school until, within one week’s time, a special school for the Roma children would have been set up in an area located further away from the settlement than the school. The parents were afraid and did not send their children to school the next day.

When the Coordinated Organisations and Communities for Roma Human Rights in Greece (SOKADRE), to which GHM is a member, was informed of this, it both encouraged the parents to send their children back to school, and informed the local police that the children would be going to school and that police presence was required. As a result, on October 10, 2005, and following police intervention, the eight Roma children went to school.

On October 11, 2005, the school’s Parents and Guardians Association decided that their children would not go to school until the new, segregated school for the Roma had been set up. They also demanded that the Roma children attending the evening classes also stop attending school until then. An announcement was posted on the school’s entrance by the Association reading “The school will remain closed for the problem with the Gypsies”. As a consequence, SOKADRE continued, with the protection of the police, to escort the children to school, on October 11 and 12, 2005. During these two days, Mr. Theo Alexandridis, who was present, and another volunteer received threats and were verbally harassed.

Although GHM requested for protection against these violent acts, there were only two to three police officers on October 13, 2005 unable to exercise control over a mob of fifty to sixty parents who were pushing, shouting, insulting, and threatening Mr. Alexandridis, and preventing the eight Roma children from entering the school. There is available television footage showing the incident.

Although Mr. Alexandridis immediately expressed his wish to press charges against all the parents who were there and despite the fact that some of the offences that were taking place were punishable ex officio (indeed, three parents were eventually charged with use of illegal force), it took the police 90 minutes to inform Mr. Alexandridis that he should go to the police station to press charges. Thus, at around 5.00 pm, the Romani children entered, under reinforced police escort, into the school, while Mr. Alexandridis was taken to the police station in order to formally press charges. There, he was made to wait for an hour, under the pretext that the police director would soon come and he would decide who would complete the necessary forms. It was only after much protesting that a police officer took down the complaint.

At the time Mr. Alexandridis was waiting and was giving his testimony, the police director was holding a meeting with the nominal chairman of some Roma association (who was hurriedly asked to go to the police station), the chairman of the Parents and Guardians Association (whom Mr. Alexandridis had sued and, in addition, had been booked into the police station for use of illegal force) and local municipality officials. When Mr. Alexandridis finished giving his deposition, at around 7.00 pm, he was told not to leave the police station without any additional explanation. At the same time, the legal representatives of GHM and Minority Rights Group-Greece who went to the school, escorted the children back home and then went to the police station, were refused entry into it to see the police director or to pick up Mr. Alexandridis. Only after several calls by GHM to the Ministry of Public Order, and by GHM’s main legal counsel to the Aspropyrgos police station, Mr. Alexandridis was told one hour later that it was likely that charges would be pressed against him by some of the parents. When queried as to whether charges were being pressed or would be pressed, the police officers did not answer. Mr. Alexandridis was finally informed that it was under arrest around 8.30 pm, when he informed a police officer that he would leave the police station.

Around 10 and 10.30 pm., Mr. Alexandridis was informed that he would not be tried under the in flagrante procedure. A defence deposition was then taken and he was officially released around 11.30 pm, when he learned that he had been kept in the police station because the chairman of the Parents and Guardians Association had orally expressed her wish to press charges of slander and defamation against him and that hence the police was obliged to detain him until charges were pressed and the prosecutor ruled as to whether the in flagrante procedure should be followed or not. It was only then, after waiting for four hours outside the police station, that the GHM and MRG-G representatives were allowed to enter the station and speak to the police director, as well as meet Mr. Alexandridis.

Background information:

As a result of all the tension described above, the Roma are afraid that repatriate Greeks will attack their settlement. Indeed, for many years, there has been increased tension between the Roma and the repatriate Greeks, tension that it the past led to violent incidents, such as the attack, by repatriate Greek, of a Roma settlement in Aspropyrgos, in February 2004 (See OMCT Open letter to the Greek authorities, 19 February 2004). Additionally, after the Roma children first registered to the school, the schools’ headmasters sent a letter to their superiors, on June 21, 2005 informing them inter alia that the Parents and Guardians Association had strongly reacted against the prospect of the Roma children attending the school, recalling the violent incidents, and stated that all that were indications of what may follow in the fall. The state’s adequate measures the headmasters requested were never taken, as their letter - copied to SOKADRE and the Greek Ombudsman - was ignored by the authorities.

Action requested:

Please write to the Greek authorities urging them to:
i. Put an end to the harassment directed against Mr. Theo Alexandridis and other persons involved in the defence of Roma people;

ii. Conduct a fair, impartial and independent inquiry into these events, in order to identify the authors, bring them to justice and pronounce sentences proportional to the gravity of their crimes;

iii. Guarantee the respect of human rights and the fundamental freedoms throughout the country in accordance with international human rights standards, in particular the relevant provisions relating to access to education in the Convention of the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Addresses:

• Mr. Costas Karamanlis, Prime Minister, Prime Minister’s Office at the Hellenic Parliament, Greek Parliament Blgd, Constitution Square, Athens, Greece, Fax: +30 210 3238129 Email: Mail@primeminister.gr
  
  
• Mr. Petros Molyviatis, Foreign Minister, Athens, Greece, Fax: 30 210 36 81 433
  
  
• Mr. Anastasios Papaligouras, Minister of Justice, Athens, Greece, Fax +30 2107489231
  
  
• Mr. George Voulgarakis, Minister of Public Order, Athens, Greece, Fax: + 30 210 6917944
  
  
• Mr. George Kaminis, Ombudsman for Human Rights, Fax: + 30 210 7289643
  
  
• Ambassador, Tassos Kriekoukis, Mission permanente de la Grèce, Place Saint-Gervais 1, 1201 Genève, Suisse, e-mail: mission.greece@ties.itu.int, Fax : +41 22 732.21.50

Please also write to the embassies of Greece in your respective country.

Geneva, October 21, 2005

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code number of this appeal in your reply.