|
About the arrest of a member of the Nigerian Community of Thessaloniki
October 22, 2009, Thessaloniki
"On Friday 9th of October 2009 at the Industrial zone of Sindos, the 38 year old worker from Nigeria Victor Edokpaye and father of three children was hit by a car and was fatally wounded as he was going to his workplace.
The driver of the vehicle abandoned the victim and dissapeared, thus depriving any chance for his survival.
As we were mourning for his loss and we were looking for a way to send his body back to Nigeria and help the widow, a group of at least 25 policemen from the Police Station of Aristotelous came to the offices of the Nigerian Community (Stratigou Makrigianni 10) on Sunday (11/10/09) at 19.50 approximately, so as to harass and terrorize us. They reached so fas as to beat and arrest a Nigerian, Mr. Mavis Owen"
[from the Announcement of the Nigerian Community]
In a state where the "justice" has become a "without meaning" pretense for the autocratic authority of the state Procurators and the Judges.
In a society where the role of the victim and the offender has been tragically inverted.
Where the friends and relatives of the dead Victor Edokpaye are treated by the motorbike gangs of the police (named "Zita" and "Delta" groups) as de facto criminals because of their identity as immigrants and because of their origin.
In a court-room where on the bench of the accused are the people who ask justice (like today on this bench is sitting Mavis Owen), the only answer that all of us (both immigrants and locals) can give is social solidarity and resistance against the barbaric and racist regime of authority.
Since the first moment that PASOK took over the governance of the state, they renamed "Ministry of Public Order" into "Ministry of Protection of the Citizen" and the minister Hrisoxoidis himself declared that: "Any policeman who dares to touch illegally a citizen or an illegal immigrant will be expelled from the Police immediately and by my personal initiative".
Vile lies. The reality is the violent repression of the just insurrection of the 800 refugees in the detention center of Mitilini last Tuesday by the riot police, the tortures that lead to the death of immigrant from Pakistan Mohament Kamran Atif in Nikea (Athens), the impunity of the crimes and murders of the police like in the case of the immigrant from Nigeria Tony Onouaha in Kalamaria at 18/8/07... instead of the prosecution of the civil police who murdered Tony, the ones who are still prosecuted by the justice system are 20 demonstrators from the solidarity march, whose trial is in Thessaloniki on the 6th of May 2009.
All these, like the recent arrest of demonstrators in Nikea by the new and without legal validity "law-against-the-hoods", are proving once more that the "change" of government does not mean in any case that there will be any change in the criminal behavior of the Greek Police and there will no change at all in the way that the judges are covering them.
The relatives, the friends and Nigerian Community of the dead Nigerian Victor Edokpaye demand justice. Instead of justice the immediate response that they receive is an attack by the police motorbike groups in front of the offices of the Nigerian Community. During that harassment the police arrested Mavis Owen and he faces the charges of "body injury", "civil disobedience" and "resistance against authority".
SOLIDARITY TO THE STRUGGLE OF EVERY IMMIGRANT FOR DIGNITY AND EQUALITY
Antiauthoritarian Movement of Thessaloniki
www.resistance2003,gr
ak_salonica@resist.ca |
