Greece: Report todays actions in solidarity with D. Koufontinas – March 04

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Received 04/03/2021

For the fourth consecutive day, people throughout Greece are taking to the streets to demand a stop to the state-sanctioned murder of Dimitris Koufontinas. Earlier today and after repeated suggestions from the Secretary General of Anti-Crime Policy S. Nikolaou, his lawyer I. Kurtovic, joined by a prominent lawyer loyal to the conservative party, submitted a motion to the District Court of Lamia for a temporary annulment of Koufontinas’s sentence given the extreme circumstances of his health and the imminent danger to his life, being on the 56th day of his hunger and 10th day of his thirst strike. As expected, due to political pressures, the court declined their request and Koufontinas issued a statement (link) that he is continuing his strike until his rightful demand to be taken back to Korydallos prison is met.

In a shift of her stance following her smearing campaign against Kurtovic and Koufontinas and days of blatant lying to the media, Nikolaou accepted, in correspondence to Kurtovic, that the District Court of Lamia is legally unable to rule on Koufontinas’s transfer and it is actually her office that is responsible for the matter. All while shamelessly labelling her 60-day delayed ruling on their requests as “pending”, and days after her claims that the problem lies on Koufontinas’s legal team side by not engaging with the courts and accusing them of unnecessarily politicising the decision for his transfer.

In a new low, the administration of Lamia Hospital today refused access to DK’s doctors of choice. In his legal rights, the hunger and thirst striking patient is allowed to nominate two physicians of his liking to monitor his health and assist with the managment of his strike. Domokos prison officials informed that the refusal is not coming from their part thus implicating directly the hospital administration in this gross violation of DK’s rights. They are falsely claiming that Koufontinas has reached a maximum of visitations for the time being and granting futher visitation rights will be considered again next week, a baseless and outrageous claim considering that medical care is not guided by such pretexts.

(18:00) Athens: People starting to gather at Syntagma with police looking more prepared to repress the demo, the square being encircled from most sides to prevent access and, as expected, covid document checks and fine-giving ongoing. Many metro stations around central Athens have been closed off by the police and the square can only be accessed via its south side. Interestingly, station closures were announced as close to the time of the demo as possible (in another failed attempt to bring numbers down?).

(18:30) Riot police attempted to block access to the street in front of parliament, but another day of strong turnout forced them to abandon their plans and the demo occupied the road. The police made repeated requests for the street to be cleared and the crowd to disperse but their efforts were futile. A heated discussion with the legal support team ensued and the demo begun, closely followed by heavy police forces.

(19:00) The demo marched down Propylea and Panepistimiou and reached Omonoia square at roughly 19:40

via @ximikesaggalies

photo by @partizanGreece