BLOG_ALL UPDATES

DAY 138: “THEY WERE HITTING US WITH WOODEN CLUBS”

138th Hearing, Women’s Wing, Korydallos Prison, March 14th, 2017

 

  1. Access to the Court

The courtroom remains open to the public upon presentation of a state ID card, which is retained by court authorities for the duration of the session. There were very few members of the press in the courtroom, a small number of spectators, and the usual presence of police, as in previous hearings.

ΙΙ. Presence of defendants

None of the defendants was present at the hearing.

ΙΙΙ. Testimony of witness Gaga (the mother of Foivos Demertzidis) continues

Responding to questions by the civil action counsels, the witness stated that Kambioti’s father had expressed his concern both to the witness and to her husband about his daughter getting into trouble when he was away in London, and about her involvement with Golden Dawn. The witness also stated that Foivos plays music, that he had expressed no political position, that he wasn’t even in the 15-member school committee and that the attack on her son changed everything in their lives, fear and insecurity have tainted their every day. This fear was what had stopped them from taking action as the Parents and Guardians Association, given that, especially back then, members of Golden Dawn were approaching their children trying to enlist them in the organization. The witness testified about the connection between Apostolopoulos and Grammatikakis, the school’s PE teacher, who put the former in the school sit-in and also asked of him some favors. She also mentioned an incident that took place a little before the attack on her son, in which a Pakistani man who was washing the windows of a video club was stabbed, but no one reported it because they were afraid of retributions by Golden Dawn. She added that soon after the attack took place, two tall muscular men with shaved heads and army boots, along with a girl that wore clothes emblazoned with swastikas, came to her job in Nea Smyrni and after sitting at a table, one of them told her “I’ve seen you before, you are frequently on TV these days, and you talk too much”, and she called 4-5 people to come for support because she was afraid. Regarding the slogans that Apostolopoulos was writing on the school’s walls, they were a political statement, because he was a Golden Dawner. As far as the witness knows, Apostolopoulos never admitted it, but only said that he had gone to the Golden Dawn offices, had gotten a membership card, and never participated. Responding to a question by civil action counsel Kabagiannis about whether she would attribute the use of the knife to the organization, she said that she knows that these people [:Golden Dawn] use knives, brass knuckles etc.

The witness was then questioned by the defense counsels. Responding to a question by defense counsel Saxioni about why in her earlier testimonies the witness never once mentioned the phrase that her son supposedly told her, “Mom, I was attacked by fascists”, the witness stated that apart from the fact that she was in a state of shock (“My child had been stabbed”) this whole thing to her felt like a ball of yarn that slowly unravelled, and as time passed she gradually put each thing in its proper place, and saw the connections between them. When asked how she explains the fury of Apostolopoulos at her son, since her son wasn’t politically active, she answered that his fury can be attributed to the image Apostolopoulos had of Foivos, which was far from the truth. Responding to a question by defense counsel Aggeletos about why her son continued to frequent the park since there were people there that looked at him funny and seemed dangerous, the witness said that -according to her estimate- kids in adolescence have their own ways of dealing with things, and that in any case it was their school and their park, they wouldn’t leave just because Golden Dawners started hanging out there. Defense counsel Roussopoulos asked the witness whether she knows about the immigrants who stab each other, or if she believes that only Golden Dawn does these things, and if she knows about Filopoulos, of Panathinaikos FC, who was stabbed by Olympiakos FC fans. The presiding judge did not allow the question to be answered. The witness went on to say that there had been slogans painted on the walls with the name of Foivos and signed by anarchists, but they hadn’t been written by her son, other people wrote them and the witness herself had painted over many of them.

ΙV. Testimony of witness Ali Laqat (concerning the case of the attack in Vainia Ierapetras)

  1. Examination by the members of the court

Responding to questions by the presiding judge, the witness, aided by an interpreter, testified that he is from Pakistan, that he came to Greece in September 2007, and that all these years he has been living in Ierapetra, in the same address, making his living as an agricultural worker.

The witness stated that in the fall of 2012 he was renting a house in Vainia Ierapetras, in which lived a total of 6 persons, all of them Pakistanis. Up until 2012, none of them had any trouble whatsoever. The first incident took place a few weeks before the attack, in November of 2012. One night, at about 20:00 or 21:00, they were sitting inside the house when they heard a noise like a bottle breaking outside their door and they saw there a broken beer bottle with a cloth set on fire, and another two that hadn’t shattered. They put out the fire on their own and saw no one, they just heard the noise of revving motorcycles roaring away. They made nothing else.

The witness went on to say that after this incident, the attack against him and his roommates took place, in February of 2013. On the day in question he had come home from work and after they ate lunch with Mazhar they went towards the village, at about 17:00-18:00 in the afternoon. The house was situated 5-7 minutes away from the village. When they came back, they saw in the entrance to their house their friend Hanif being taken out of the house by 10-12 persons, who were beating him up and told him that “If you don’t leave this house we’ll kill you”. Hanif himself described this threat, since he speaks some Greek. The presiding judge asked the witness about the appearance of the people that attacked them, the people they beat up and in what way exactly, and the witness answered that they were white men who wore black, they were hitting them all together and they wounded Mazhar on the head. They used wooden clubs to beat up the witness, Mazhar, and Mohammad. They hit the witness on the left shoulder blade and the attack lasted about 5-7 minutes. He couldn’t see any facial characteristics, and didn’t hear more threats, apart from the word “malakas”. He went on to say that a Greek saw them and called the police. When they were discharged from the hospital they were taken to the police and where kept in jail for 17-18 days. When asked by the presiding judge if he understood what the assailants asked of them and if someone of them looked like he was in charge, the witness answered that they only phrase they understood was that if they didn’t vacate the house they would kill them. Regarding the attack they couldn’t tell if someone was in charge because almost all of the Pakistanis were on the floor as the assailants were hitting them, and they were in no position to think it over. When they had spoken on the phone with their friends in the center [:of Athens] and exchanged news, their friends told them to be careful because there’s a special group that are wearing a special uniform and terrorize immigrants. The presiding judge asked what was this group, and the witness answered “Golden Dawn”. Nothing else happened after the incident, the witness stayed and worked in the same village, but since then he has changed residence. When asked by the state prosecutor whether he was shown photos to identify his attackers, he answered that he did not identify anyone. The case was tried in Crete and the appeals court has still to reach a decision yet.

  1. Examination of the witness by the civil action counsels

The witness repeated some of the things he had said concerning the incident, and added that the friends that warned them were staying in Kypseli, Renti, and Nikaia, and that when the wounded men were in the hospital they connected the dots and thought that the assailants were Golden Dawn, a belief that was strengthened when the case was tried in Ierapetra. The witness also mentioned that when they got out of the hospital they were arrested by the police and at the police station it was shown that they had no residence permit and were held for 17 days.

  1. Examination of the witness by the defense counsels

Responding to questions by the defense counsels the witness stated that anyone standing in front of the oil mill could see their house. He also testified that the owner was Andreas Bilalis and that the rent started at 400 euros but ended up being 150. The house had an extension made of nylon, in which they prepared their meals. Responding to questions by defense counsel Spyropoulos, about whether it is possible that the people that asked for oil in the oil mill were different from the people that attacked them, the witness stated that he doesn’t know. Responding to a question by defense counsel Bounas about whether “black is the favorite color in Crete”, the witness said “to each his own”. He stated that on the night of the attack they did not testify to the police because they were afraid. Responding to a question by defense counsel Roussopoulos about how many people were in the house at the time of the attack, he answered that they had no time to see if someone else was inside, and that Hanif later told them that there were another 3 persons in the house that managed to get away. About 100-150 Pakistanis work in the area. According to what their friends from Athens had told them, the people that attacked them were Greeks from Golden Dawn.

  1. Testimony of witness Hanif Mohammad
  2. Examination by the members of the court

Responding to questions by the presiding judge, the witness, aided by an interpreter, testified that he is a resident of Greece for the past 8 years, and that he is living in the village of Vainia, in Ierapetra. He is an agricultural worker in the greenhouses. He stated that he was the one that rented the house where 6 persons were staying, among them his brother who has since left for Pakistan. They had no differences with other Pakistanis or Greeks. Concerning the incident in the fall of 2012 he can’t remember the exact date, only that they were sitting there [:in the house] and that some men came and beat him up. At the time of the attack he wasn’t in the house proper, but in the nylon extension, along with three of his friends. Only one of them was a resident of the house. It was about 20:00 or 20:30 when persons holding wooden clubs came into the house. The door to the nylon extension was always open. The assailants came through the door. He had never seen them before, there were about 10 or 15 of them, they were all white and wore black clothes. When asked by the presiding judge if he remembers any facial characteristics the witness said, “I was scared to death and can’t remember anything. Some of them got in and some stayed outside. They told me to vacate the house, that if I was still there the next day they would kill me. I know a little Greek so I understood what they were asking of me. They hit me with a wooden club where I was cooking and they grabbed me by the throat. They dragged me out after threatening me, and I was frantically trying to cover my head. They were all hitting me. I was hit by a club in the left arm and in the head, many punches landed on my back, and I got a kick in the legs. The most serious hits were in my head and in my arm”.

The witness added that those who managed to get away through a tear in the nylon did so because they understood what was happening, whereas two more that came from the direction of the village couldn’t see what was going on. It was dark and there were ten assailants. Somebody took them to the hospital, they were hospitalized for a day, and when they got out they got arrested and taken to the police station. At the time of the incident, the day the three of them were injured, the witness threw a rock at the assailants’ car as it was getting away, and he broke a window. The police later searched for the car and found it, and they told them it was from Golden Dawn. Before the attack, even before the incident with the bottles and the fire, some other people had passed and had thrown empty bottles, but nothing else had happened.

The state prosecutor asked again whether they had been shown photographs and if it is normal in Crete to wear black clothes.

  1. Examination by the civil action counsels

The civil action refrained from examining the witness.

  1. Examination of the witness by the defense counsels

The witness was once more questioned about the weapons he was hit with and he mentioned the wooden clubs. He also reported that the car that he hit with the rock was 10-12 meters away and that their house is a bit higher up the slope than the oil mill. The house had been rented by his brother. Concerning the attack, he testified that even though the house was lit by a light bulb, it was covered in ashes by the charcoal that they burned to keep warm and that it was because of this, coupled with the terror he felt at the moment, that he couldn’t see the face of the person that dragged him outside, the only thing he can remember is that he had a shaved head. The police had come to the hospital and asked them if they were willing to press charges, but they weren’t from the village, they got scared and said they wouldn’t press charges. Responding to a question by defense counsel Roussopoulos he stated that even though the assailants were shouting at them, when the other two Pakistanis came from the village, they were relatively quiet, and the house is situated in such a way in relation to the road that they had no way to see what was happening and escape.

Defense counsel Roussopoulos finished by saying: “In the course of this trial we’ve heard in other testimonies that the members of Golden Dawn wear camo clothes. So who was the man that hit you that was wearing black? A Pakistani Golden Dawner?”

Finally, defense counsel Spyropoulos asked the witness if he had seen the defendants in the courtroom, and he answered in the negative.

The presiding judge adjourned for Thursday, March 16th, 2017, at 09:00, in the Court of Appeals.

RECENT UPDATES

ARCHIVE