Press Release for the illegal arrest of Greek lawyers outside the Turkish Embassy

PRESS RELEASE

In the early afternoon hours of the 24th of January 2012, members of the "Alternative Intervention of Athens Lawyers" and the "Group of Lawyers for the Rights of Migrants and Refugees" gathered outside the Turkish Embassy in Athens, in order to protest against the continuing imprisonment of 39 Turkish and Kurdish human rights defenders, who were arrested in our neighboring country, simply because of their work as lawyers. Similar protests were organised by colleagues of ours in most European capitals within the framework of a pan-European day of solidarity towards our imprisoned colleagues in Turkey.

The Athens Bar Association expresses its strong protest against the illegal and arbitrary detention for questioning of lawyers

ATHENS BAR ASSOCIATION
Academias 60, 10679 Athens
Tel 210-33.98.270, 71
Athens, 24.1.2012

ANNOUNCEMENT

The Athens Bar Association expresses its strong protest against the illegal and arbitrary detention for questioning of lawyers, who protested outside the Turkish Embassy against the arrests of 39 Kurdish lawyers, human rights defenders, in the framework of a respective EU-wide day of protest.

The ABA will proceed to a relevant objection demarche to the Minister of Citizens’ Protection, the Minister of Justice and the General Police Directorate.

The President
John D. Adamopoulos

See the official announcement in Greek here

Trial of Police Officers from St. Panteleimonas ends

Press Release

The trial of the police officers from St. Panteleimonas implicated in the torture case has ended.The Mixed Jury Criminal Court of Athens, which hears felonies at first instance, today sentenced two policemen (one of whom has already left the police force) to 5 years and 5.5 years imprisonment respectively, in the infamous torture case of Afghan refugees at the St. Panteleimon police station in December 2004. The trial had started on 21 October 2011 and ended on 20 December 2011.

CALL TO RELEASE UNLAWFULLY DETAINED LAWYERS IN TURKEY

Since 2009, more than seven thousand people have been taken into custody on the alleged grounds that they are associated with the KCK—an organization claimed to be the urban branch of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party). Four thousand of them have been arrested and imprisoned without having any prospect of a trial in the foreseeable future in Turkey.

The recent arrest of 51 lawyers representing their clients in KCK cases is a very serious development in these operations, aimed to silence the Kurdish opposition. On 22 November 2011, Turkish police authorities conducted an arrest operation in 16 different provinces. The police raided the lawyers’ offices and houses, searched and confiscated their files, and made copies of their hard drives, unlawfully violating their privileges as lawyers. After their arrests, the lawyers were transferred to Istanbul as the Specialized Heavy Penal Court (formerly known as the State Security Court) issued their arrest warrants. Records of telephone interviews were added to the investigation file, and presented as the main evidence.

Announcement on Renewal of Asylum-Seekers' Pink Cards

We would like to inform you that the Aliens Directorate of the Ministry of Citizen Protection has issued the following announcement:

"Asylum-seekers holding a pink card which has expired since June 2009 are requested to proceed to the authorities responsible for receiving and examining asylum claims in order to renew their pink cards, within a period of two (2) months, from 5 October 2011 to 5 December 2011 (inclusive). In case of failing to show up within this deadline the examination of their cases will be withdrawn".

Keine Auslieferung der Aktivistin Gülaferit Ünsal an Deutschland Gewährung politischen Asyls in Griechenland

Presseerklärung

Am Freitag, 16. September, verhandelt der Oberste Gerichtshof Griechenlands über das Rechtsmittel, das Gülaferit Ünsal gegen die Entscheidung des Berufungsgerichtes von Thessaloniki eingelegt hatte, mit der ihre Auslieferung nach Deutschland angeordnet wurde.


Nichts aber rechtfertigt Ihre Auslieferung.


Auf Grundlage eines Haftbefehls der deutschen Behörden wird Gülaferit Ünsal der Mitgliedschaft in einer „terroristischen Organisation“ beschuldigt. Die einzige Grundlage dafür ist ihre legale politische Aktivität, d. h. der Verkauf von Zeitschriften und ihre Teilnahme an Solidaritätskampagnen für türkische politische Gefangene.

Fylakio in September 2011 - "My only wish was to escape from this situation"

Published on September 12, 2011 in http://infomobile.w2eu.net 

 

Yesterday we received a phone-call from relatives of Syrian refugees, who have been prisoners in Fylakio (Northern Greece) since a few days:

Today I talked with somebody who was released a few days ago from Fylakio prison about his experiences there. He didn’t want to talk about it first. He said he didn’t want me to feel sorry for something that happened to him, and make me suffer, me and my family. But I said to him: “Tell me the whole truth. The people have to know what happens in there!”
They get food once a day. The food is hardly enough to survive.
The drinking water is dirty. Sand is coming out of the tap.
The toilets are dirty.
There is no fresh air. No ventilation.
Once a months they are allowed to go out in the yard. Never they see the sunlight and they are always locked in. In 46 days they have been two times outside to breathe.
Only once, at the 3rd of September, when the prison was burning. This day they had to stand for four hours in the sun, no shadow anywhere. Collective punishment?
One guy from Syria started a hunger strike. Nobody was interested in his protest. So finally he hurt himself with a knife. The police was just watching. Later they transferred him into another cell. Seven days isolation. Afterwards they brought him back to the big cell, back to all the other prisoners. The demand of his hungerstrike had been to get released. But nobody listened. Nobody outside even noticed his protest.
Something else: Police beats people. They beat you in a life-threatening way. Beating and abusing this is normal in Greece. They beat the people in there, they torture them.
If somebody gets sick there is no doctor.
He told me:
I did not apply for asylum. I took a private lawyer who said to me if I do, I will have to stay very long in this prison and there is no chance to get asylum in Greece anyway. The lawyers always promise some things but they lie a little bit, about the chances of getting released.
The sitation inside is horrible. There is no electricity. The people sleep three in one bed. If one is falling from the bed, he can break his hands or his skull and nobody is taking notice. Once and Afghan fell down. He was bleeding heavily and nobody did anything to help.
There are different nationalities and ethnicities in one small room. If they start a fight the policemen stand outside laughing about it until the fight is over. Or until somebody gets a fracture or something else happens. They don’t care.
There are many people in one cell and all the time new people are pushed inside.
My only wish was to escape from this situation. Only to get out of there. Even if I would be deported. Anything would be better than this prison. This is why nobody wants to apply for asylum here. Because it’s so horrible in this prison and nobody wants to be forced to stay here for the whole six months – even not for one day longer!

————————–

Imprisoned refugees in Fylakio protested on 3rd of September 2011. They set the mattresses on fire. This is the ongoing revolt after a series of revolts in prisons in (Northern) Greece where people are locked because they are searching for a safe place to stay. Revolts and hungerstrikes we will make public. Publicity is the only (weak) protection against the brutal repression that follows the revolts in most cases:

On the last revolt in Fylakio, 3rd of September 2011: http://infomobile.w2eu.net/2011/09/04/revolt-in-fylakio-detention-centre-3rd-september-2011/

Riot in Fylakio Detention Center, 4th of December 2010: http://w2eu.net/2010/12/04/riot-at-the-fylakion-detention-centre/

Demonstration of the Greek antiracist movement in Evros, Fylakio 18th of December 2010: http://w2eu.net/2010/12/19/fylakio/

List of (some) hungerstrikes and revolts of migrants in Greece 2009 and 2010: http://infomobile.w2eu.net/resistance/hunger-strikes/

Some photos from Evros:
http://infomobile.w2eu.net/media/photos/evros/

In August 2011 Medicins sans Frontieres announced that for almost a month, there has been no medical care to immigrants and asylum seekers in detention: http://clandestinenglish.wordpress.com/2011/08/30/msf-no-medical-care-for-immigrants-in-detention-centers/