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Students, trade unionists and politicians tried to challenge the coronavirus-related ban to pay tribute to Alexandros Grigoropoulos, 15, who was shot and killed by police in 2008.
Police in the Greek capital arrested dozens of people who defied a coronavirus-related ban to participate in the annual commemoration of the fatal shooting of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, 15, by a police officer in 2008.
Some 4,000 police officers were deployed on Sunday to avoid meetings and will continue to do so until early Monday morning.
Images posted online showed riot police on Sunday afternoon entering apartment buildings in Exarchia, a neighborhood in central Athens, to eject potential protesters. A video showed officers throwing stun grenades inside a building. Another clip showed police pressuring photojournalists and other accredited members of the media.
The scenes were reminiscent of the heavy-handed tactics police adopted last month when they violently broke up a peaceful demonstration commemorating a 1973 student uprising against Greece’s then military rulers.
VIDEO: Greek video hunting people and then throwing a flash grenade inside the entrance of an apartment block. These weapons can cause serious injuries such as permanent deafness, loss of eyes / fingers, etc. when used in confined spaces https://t.co/7disuLCRQd
– Professor Dude (@teacherdude) December 6, 2020
As they did before the November 17 anniversary, authorities this week also announced a ban on gatherings of more than four people due to the need to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
But groups of students, trade unionists and prominent left-wing politicians, some with flowers, tried to challenge the measure to pay tribute to Grigoropoulos on the 12th anniversary of his shooting death by police in Exarcheia.
The officer who killed the teenager was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison, but was later released in 2019, a decision that Grigoropoulos’s family is appealing in court.
The country erupted at the time of his assassination, with students, left-wing activists and others participating in larger and larger protests that turned violent at times. Since then, demonstrations and small-scale clashes with the police have taken place almost every year on the anniversary of December 6.
A photo of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, right, in a makeshift shrine at the site of the fatal shooting in Athens 12 years ago. [File: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP Photo]
On Thursday, Greece extended a second nationwide lockdown imposed last month to Dec. 14 after a surge in COVID-19 cases that threaten to overwhelm the country’s already strained healthcare system.
By Sunday, the country had registered 115,471 confirmed coronavirus infections and more than 3,000 related deaths.
Political opponents of Greece’s conservative government have criticized it for using coronavirus containment measures as a cover to impose increasingly harsh security measures.
The opposition parties denounced the police action on Sunday and demanded the release of the detainees.
Last month, global rights watchdog Amnesty International said it was “deeply concerned” by the authorities’ decision to ban public gatherings.
“Restrictions on the right to peaceful assembly to stop the pandemic are permissible but must comply with the principles of strict necessity and proportionality. Governments have no carte blanche to restrict human rights, even during these difficult times, ”said Nils Muiznieks, Amnesty Regional Director for Europe.
The Greek authorities have banned all public gatherings and rallies to mark the 12th anniversary of the murder of teenager Alexis Grigoropoulos by a police officer in Athens. [Yorgos Karahalis/AP]
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