Over 100 People Detained at Grigoropoulos Murder Commemoration Protest in Athens, Reports Say

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Greek police have detained more than 100 people during a protest marking the anniversary of the 2008 police killing of teenager Alexis Grigoropoulos in Athens, local news agency AMNA reported on Sunday.

On Saturday, the Hellenic Police announced a ban on protests ahead of the notorious murder’s anniversary, citing coronavirus-related restrictions on mass events. The Greek opposition decried the ban, accusing the government of abusing COVID-19 to limit citizens’ rights and freedoms.

The majority of the detentions — 60 — were carried out in the central Athens neighborhood of Exarchia, where Grigoropoulos had been shot dead, according to the report.

A clash reportedly occurred between police and a group of around 50 protesters carrying a banner and yelling pro-Grigoropoulos statements, after which officers began dispersing the crowd and used two stun grenades.

Sputnik’s office in Greece captured a scene of detention of a German couple who brought flowers to the site of Grigoropoulos’s murder. The police officer carrying out the arrest did not specify its reason, neither did he introduce himself, even though the woman was speaking Greek to him. He forced the couple into a police vehicle amid journalists’ comments that his actions were illegal.

Closer to the evening, police began forcing journalists out of the neighbourhood.

Demonstrators shout slogans and hold red flags in Thessaloniki on December 6, 2019, during a rally commemorating the death of the 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos, who was fatally shot by a police officer in 2008.

Grigoropoulos, who was 15 at the time, was shot dead by a police officer who was responding to a disturbance in Athens. His death prompted numerous weeks of riots across Greece, and citizens have gathered each year on December 6 to mark the anniversary of the incident.

In 2019, roughly 80 people were detained as demonstrations to mark Grigoropoulos’s death turned violent. Three police officers sustained injuries during clashes with protesters.

Sourse: sputniknews.com