Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) reports that on Tuesday, 20 December 2011, the Naval Court of Piraeus acknowledged that the racist slogans that were heard during the 2010 Greek Independence Day Parade [25 March] were chanted by the entire contingent of the 39 charged members of the Hellenic Coast Guard Underwater Missions Unit. However, it convicted (to 3 months and 15 days for violation of Article 2 of the antiracism Law 927/79) only the 2 coastguardsmen who were clearly visible in the video, acquitting “by reason of doubt” the other 37, including the three leaders. The Prosecutor, on the other hand, had recommended the conviction of all 39 since he considered that the whole contingent chanted the “chilling slogans that speak of physical extermination of Albanians and Skopjans.” He also asked that his pleading be recorded in its entirety in the proceedings. The court’s decision regrettably confirms the frequently prevalent view of the Greek justice system that where there is no video, there is no crime by a public servant.

Recapping the charges: “As members of the contingent of the Coast Guard Underwater Missions Unit participating in the 2010 Greek Independence Day Parade [25 March], they decided in concert to publicly express ideas offensive to a group of persons on account of their ethnic origin. Namely, after passing the official reviewing stand in Syntagma Square, the coastguardsmen continued in official formation and marching step along the parade route to Panepistimiou and Aghiou Konstantinou Boulevards, where, in front of the spectators lining the street, they shouted in unison the following phrases: ‘You’re born a Greek; you can never become one. We’ll spill your blood, Albanian pigs’; ‘They call them Skopjans, they call them Albanians. I’ll sew my clothing from their skins’; ‘There’ll be carnage and then I’ll get revenge, when you kneel before the flag and cross.’”

On 16 December 2011, the first day of the trial, the court overruled the defense’s objections and again upheld the civil claimant status of the two citizens of the “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” and Albania, residents of Greece, through their representative and GHM legal counsel Thanassis Tartis. It also dismissed the defense’s objection to the deposition by GHM Spokesperson Panayote Dimitras, citing that the brief was formed following the complaint by the latter to the Prosecutors of the Supreme Court, the Appeals Court of Athens, and the Athens First Instance Court on the day after the parade.

During the first day of the hearing, verbal insults and threats were made inside the courtroom inter alia by members of the neo-Nazi group Chryssi Avgi [Golden Dawn], without the court taking any criminal action against them. The culmination was a violent physical assault by a party official of the extreme right government party LAOS, who was also present in the courtroom, against Panayote Dimitras and Thanassis Tartis during the former’s testimony before the bench, in an area of the courtroom that is inaccessible to third parties when effective measures of order are enforced. Once again, the court took no criminal against the perpetrator. Eloquent headlines appeared in the media that same day: “Scuffle at the trial of the Coast Guard frogmen…The situation got out of control” (“To Vima”); “Scenes of infinite beauty at frogmen’s trial” (“TVXS”); “Panic at the frogmen’s trial” (“newsbomb.gr”). This was followed by hundreds of posts on the internet in praise of the incidents, the physical attack in particular. There were also new threats of new attacks, not only against Thanassis Tartis and Panayote Dimitras but also against the Naval Court of Piraeus in the case of a conviction. It was also public knowledge that hundreds of similar abusive and threatening posts were published after the 20 September 2011 hearing. However, the state’s competent authorities, to whom the aggrieved parties appealed, obviously did nothing. As a result, the perpetrators believed that they could continue their activities undisturbed to culminate in the events of 16 December 2011 and what has followed to this day with the complicit tolerance of the competent authorities.

For these reasons the two civil claimants informed the court on 19 December 2011 that they were resigning from their position as civil claimants, which in any case was solely in defense of the charges, due to the absence of fundamental guarantees of respect for the personality and physical integrity of the litigants, their advocates and the witnesses, guarantees that are integral components of a fair trial according to Article 6.1 of the ECHR.

Following is a translation of the sole article on the coastguardsmen’s conviction to appear in the Greek papers on the day after the trial.

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Eleftherotypia

Wednesday 21 December 2011

PUNISHMENT FOR JUST TWO OF THE 39 COASTGUARDSMEN
Parade of Racism

http://www.enet.gr/?i=news.el.ellada&id=333481

By DIMITRIS PSARRAS

On Wednesday evening, 21 December 2011, the Naval Court of Piraeus, with a Solomon-type decision, concluded its trial of 39 Coastguardsmen accused of violating the antiracism Law 927/1979 by chanting racist slogans while marching in the Greek Independence Day parade [25 March 2010]. These slogans included “You’re born a Greek; you can never become one. We’ll spill your blood, Albanian pigs,” “There’ll be carnage and then I’ll get revenge, when you kneel before the flag and cross,” and the chilling “They call them Skopjans, they call them Albanians. I’ll sew my clothing from their skins.”

The case came to light in a news story by journalist Dimitris Angelidis. The “Eleftherotypia” journalist had videoed the scene with his cell phone, which he uploaded on enet.gr, the paper’s online site.

The court accepted that the racist slogans were in fact chanted by the contingent of the Coast Guard Underwater Missions Unit, but determined that it could only specify the charges for the two men who appear most clearly shouting slogans on the video. These two men received a 3-month, 15-day suspended sentence, while the others were cleared by reason of doubt. One member of the court voted against the decision, seeking acquittal for all by reason of doubt.

The prosecutor had requested a conviction for all 39 men, reasoning that in a disciplined and well-trained unit it is inconceivable that a slogan shouted by the leader would not be repeated by all. In his argument he linked the chanting of these slogans to the fact that the parade was concurrent with the passing of the new citizenship Law 3838/2010, asserting that with those slogans the Coastguard contingent had turned the parade into a protest demonstration. He concluded by saying that “what they were doing was breaking the law; patriotism does not provide immunity.”

Confrontational atmosphere

The trial began on Friday, 16 December 2011 in a climate of confrontation that was generated outside the Naval Court building as well as inside the courtroom by groups of supporters of the accused. Indeed, some of these demonstrators were shouting similar slogans and appeared to be retirees of the same corps. The court was obliged to suspend proceedings when someone in the audience threatened and attempted to use force against Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) spokesperson Panayote Dimitras and attorney Thanassis Tartis, who were litigating as civil claimants.

Following these incidents the GHM spokesperson and his attorney withdrew from the trial in a statement to the court claiming that it did not fulfill the standards of a fair trial.

In their pleas the defendants attempted to create the impression that the slogans heard came from some parade spectators. But the court was not convinced given their obviously conflicting statements.

The first witnesses to testify for the defense were two foreign women who were fiancées of members of the contingent an example, according to the defense counsel, that the squad was not imbued with racist sentiments. Yet, one of their lawyers freely expressed the belief that “we Greeks are a superior race.” Also testifying on behalf of the accused were retired Rear Admiral I. Theofanidis, retired Commodore V. Politis, and the Honorary Chief of the Hellenic Army General Staff Frangos Frangoulis. The court rejected the request of attending parliamentarian Panos Kammenos to testify.

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