Amnesty International Report 2005 - Greece

Covering events from January - December 2004

Ill-treatment of migrants by border guards and by police officers in urban centres was reported. Conditions of detention for undocumented immigrants and asylum-seekers were poor. Trials relating to police ill-treatment of women, minorities and foreign nationals took place. Concerns were raised about conditions of detention in Korydallos prison. Discriminatory treatment of Roma by the authorities continued. Conscientious objectors continued to face the threat of imprisonment. In November the Greek parliament approved the ratification of Protocol No. 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights, thereby abolishing the death penalty for all crimes.

Background

Elections in March were won by the New Democracy party, ending 11 years of rule by the Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK).

In August, Greece hosted the 2004 Summer Olympic Games. There were reports of forced evictions of Roma families from sites designated for infrastructure and building projects linked to the Olympics, and concerns that security measures implemented in connection with the event undermined human rights.

Treatment of refugees and migrants

There were concerns that practices by coastguards and police, including border police, aimed at discouraging undocumented migrants from entering Greek territory, violated international standards. Such practices included interception on the Turkish border and immediate expulsion, refusal to accept applications for asylum, and failure to make available such applications to migrants.

In August migrants who had been detained for three months on the island of Samos reported conditions of detention that contravened international standards. Concerns were also raised by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) following a visit to the detention centre. In September, 10 migrants were reportedly ill-treated by members of commando forces on Farmakonisi.

On 15 October, five coastguards were found guilty of torturing a group of immigrants on the island of Crete in June 2001, and received suspended prison sentences of between 12 and 30 months.

• A Sudanese national was at risk of forcible return to the conflict-torn Darfur region of Sudan from where he had fled in 2003 because the Ministry of Public Order refused to re-examine his case. He had been detained on his arrival in Greece in June 2003 and released three months later. He lived without welfare support in Greece until October 2003, when he travelled to the UK and claimed asylum. The UK authorities determined that Greece was responsible for deciding on his asylum claim and he was returned to Greece in June 2004. His new asylum application was rejected on the grounds that he had left Greece. The review of his original application had been cancelled. A decision to deport him was issued. A new application based on fresh information about the situation in Darfur was declared inadmissible. It was not known whether he had been deported by the end of the year.

• In November, AI expressed concern about reports that 502 children, the majority from Albania, had gone missing between 1998 and 2002 from the state-run Aghia Varvara children's home in Athens, where they were being sheltered after being taken off the streets by police. Many of the children were apparently victims of traffickers who forced them to sell trinkets or beg. AI was concerned that the children had reportedly not been adequately protected at the home and that little or no effort was made by the Greek authorities to find them. Despite the intervention of several non-governmental organizations and the Albanian Ombudsman, the Greek authorities had not undertaken a thorough and impartial judicial investigation into the case, although a preliminary police inquiry was launched in May.

• There were reports in December that police officers tortured and ill-treated a group of around 60 asylum-seekers from Afghanistan, at least 17 of whom were under 18 years old. Police reportedly punched, kicked, sexually abused and threatened them with guns both in their homes and at the local police station in Athens. Although a preliminary investigation was opened in the case, AI called for a prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigation to be carried out under Article 137 of the Penal Code.

• There were reports that 186 children aged between 13 and 16 were among the approximately 700 refugees held in the Reception and Temporary Accommodation Centre for illegal immigrants in the Pagani area of Lesbos in extremely overcrowded conditions. As many as 200 people were reportedly crowded into rooms meant to accommodate 80. Most of the refugee children were believed to come from Iraq and Afghanistan and had arrived in Greek territory unaccompanied.

Update: Vullnet Bytyci

• The trial of a police officer accused of shooting dead 18-year-old Albanian Vullnet Bytyci in September 2003 at the Greek-Albanian border was postponed until February 2005.

Conditions of detention

The National Commission of Human Rights reported in May on the poor conditions of detention in high security facilities at Korydallos prison where convicted members of the "November 17" group were being held. The prisoners had been held separately from all other prisoners in two isolated groups of seven since their conviction in November 2003 of murder and causing bomb explosions. They continued to be denied participation in regular prison activities, such as using the library, and were denied access to fresh air, daylight in the cells and exercise in a larger space in violation of international standards. It was also reported that all visits to the prisoners were "closed" (a glass screen separated the prisoner from the visitor). Lawyers and prisoners said that conversations they held over the telephone during these visits were taped, a practice that violates international standards. The Ministry of Justice stated to AI in July that the "November 17" prisoners enjoyed better conditions than other prisoners in Korydallos and that possible violations of international human rights standards would be examined.

Impunity for human rights violations

Police investigations into allegations of ill-treatment by police officers failed to meet international standards of impartiality and independence.

• In February AI raised its concerns with the Public Order Ministry that investigations into the alleged ill-treatment of two young Romani men in August 2001 had been assigned to the same police departments whose officers allegedly committed the offences. In addition, some of the statements made by police officers in this investigation contained derogatory remarks about the Roma, suggesting that the ill-treatment suffered by the youths might have been the result of discriminatory treatment based on their identity.

• After protests at the failure of the judicial authorities to call Olga B., a Ukrainian national, as a witness in the 2003 trial of a police officer accused of raping her, the retrial took place in March. On 30 March the officer was acquitted. The Patras Appeals Prosecutor appealed. However, the officer was acquitted once again in December. Olga B. had also filed a complaint in Patras in September 2003 against two bailiffs who falsely claimed to have served her with a summons to appear in the initial trial. In June, the Amaliada Misdemeanours Court recommended that the bailiffs be acquitted, but this was overturned on 21 September by the Patras Appeals Prosecutor, who launched criminal proceedings against them. The case was to be heard in 2005.

Eviction of Romani families

Romani communities were reportedly evicted from three locations in Athens designated for transformation into Olympic facilities. The authorities, by failing to facilitate their move to appropriate alternative accommodation, violated the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which Greece has ratified. Such evictions also contravened the government's "Integrated Action Plan for the Social Integration of the Greek Gypsies", which states that "it is anticipated that by the end of 2005 no Greek Rom will be living in tents or makeshift accommodation".

Conscientious objection

Legislation and practice relating to civilian alternatives to military service remained punitive in nature, although new legislation which came into force in 2004 reduced the length of such alternative service. The Special Committee, which makes recommendations on applications for conscientious objection, proposed a blanket rejection of applications based on ideological grounds where applicants do not declare particular beliefs.

AI called for a re-evaluation of the Committee's methods and for the authorities to establish an alternative to military service of a purely civilian nature, outside the authority of the Ministry of Defence.

• On 5 April the claim of Kyriacos Kapidis of conscientious objection to military service on ideological grounds was rejected because the applicant "did not present his views about why he opposes military service convincingly as part of a general outlook on life and did not present evidence of activities and lifestyle characteristically led by ideological convictions that would prevent him from carrying out his military duties".

• Professional soldier Giorgos Monastiriotis was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment for desertion after his refusal on grounds of conscience to follow his unit to the Middle East in May 2003. He also resigned from the Navy for the same reason. On 6 October he was released pending appeal.

• Conscientious objector Lazaros Petromelidis was tried on 16 December on two insubordination charges in the Naval Court of Piraeus. He was convicted in absentia and sentenced to two and a half years' imprisonment.

UN Committee against Torture

In November Greece's fourth periodic report to the UN Committee against Torture was examined. Concerns raised by the Committee included those previously raised by AI, namely the failure to investigate allegations of torture and ill-treatment promptly and impartially and the lack of an effective independent monitoring system to investigate complaints. The treatment of Albanian migrants, the low rates of refugee status recognition, the forced evictions of Roma, the failure to investigate the disappearance of children from the Aghia Varvara institution and the excessive use of force and firearms by the police were among the issues highlighted by the Committee.