Greece: Acts of harassment against Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM)
Greece: Acts of harassment against GHM
(Case
GRE 040408.4 - Follow up of Case GRE 040408 - Human
rights defenders: Judicial proceedings / Harassment)
Geneva,
11 October 2010
The International Secretariat of the World
Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) has received new information and requests
your intervention in the following situation in Greece.
New information:
The International
Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Greek Helsinki Monitor
(GHM), a member
of OMCT SOS-Torture network, about new developments in the acts of harassment
against GHM and activists who filed criminal actions against Greece’s neo-Nazis.
According to the information received, on
September 22, 2010, the trial againstMs. Anna Stai, Ms.
Rena Koutelou and Mr. Lambis Katsiapis, members of the Greek
non-governmental organisation Antinazi Initiative (Antinazistiki Protovoulia),
before the Appeals Court of Athens for dissemination of false information
through the press was postponed to December 6, 2010. The trial follows a complaint
by Mr. Kostas Plevris, author of the book “The Jews: The Whole Truth” (May
2006) in relation to a poster Antinazi Initiative published on January 14, 2009
and an announcement on their website published on January 28, 2009 where the
defendants claimed that Kostas Plevris is supported by anti-Semitic
prosecutors and judges, who constitute a “fascist network” in the judicial
system. Ms.Stai,
Ms. Koutelou and Mr. Katsiapis face a possible sentence of six months to five years of
imprisonment and a fine for dissemination of false information through the
medium of the press.
Furthermore, the International
Secretariat of OMCT has been informed of another similar case of judicial
harassment. On January 24, 2011, Ms.
Andrea Gilbert,
Mr. Panayote
Dimitras, respectively GHM’s specialist on anti-Semitism and Spokeperson
and Messrs.
Benjamin Albalas, Leon Gavrilidis, Moisis Konstantinis, and
Avraam Reitan, members of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece
(Kentriko Israilitiko Symvoulio - KIS), will be tried before the 6
th
Misdemanours Court of Athens, for false accusations, perjury and aggravated
defamation against Kostas Plevris, following a complaint he filed in 2007. The
six activists face such charges on the basis of the complaints for
anti-Semitism they had filed in 2006 against Mr. Plevris, of which he was
eventually aqcuitted
[1]. They face
possible prison sentences up to five years and the stripping of their civil rights for one to five
years.
The International
Secretariat of OMCTexpresses its deep concern about this judicial harassment against these human rights
defenders, which seems to merely aim at intimidating and sanctioning their
human rights activities, in particular their activities against discrimination
and anti-Semitism in Greece.
The International Secretariat
of OMCT also recalls that according to Article 12.2 of the United Nations
Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the UN General Assembly on
December 9, 1998, “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection
by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with
others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse
discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his
or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present
Declaration”.
Background information:
Ms. Anna Stai, Ms. Rena Koutelou, Mr.
Lambis Katsiapis, Ms. Andrea Gilbert, Mr. Panayote Dimitras,
and Messrs. Benjamin Albalas, Leon Gavrilidis, Moisis Konstantinis, and
Avraam Reitan were civil claimants and/or testified at a trial against the
extreme-right newspaper Eleftheros Kosmos, which had published articles
on October 27, 2006 in conjunction of the anti-Semitic book by Mr. Plevris,
“The Jews - The Whole Truth”. On December 13, 2007, the Second Three-Member
Appeals Court of Athens convicted Mr. Plevris to a suspended prison sentence of
14 months for “incitement to racial violence and hatred and for racial
insults”. On
March 27, 2009, an Athens Five-Member Appeals Court acquitted Mr. Plevris,
reversing the December 2007 judgment. On April 15, 2010, the Supreme Court
rejected a motion for cassation upholding the acquittal.
Since the end of the first trial of Mr. Plevris,
Mr. Dimitras has been threatened through messages posted on the Internet forum
of the LAOS youth organisation. Furthermore, Mr. Plevris has launched several
legal actions for defamation including racist and defamatory comments against
Mr. Dimitras, Ms. Gilbert, and Messrs. Moses Konstantinis, Benjamin Albala,
Abraham Reitan and Leon Gavriilidis, who had all testified against him. The
last legal action launched by Mr. Plevris is against Ms. Anna Stai, Ms. Rena
Koutelou and Mr. Lambis Katsiapis, whose trial is due in December 6, 2010.
Actions required:
Please write to the Greek authorities, urging
them to:
- Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of Ms.
Anna Stai, Ms. Rena Koutelou and Mr. Lambis Katsiapis, Mr. Panayote Dimitras,
Ms. Andrea Gilbert, and Messrs. Benjamin Albalas, Leon Gavrilidis, Moisis
Konstantinis, and Avraam Reitan;
- Put an end to all acts harassment, including at the judicial level, against Ms.
Anna Stai, Ms. Rena Koutelou and Mr. Lambis Katsiapis, Mr. Panayote Dimitras,
Ms. Andrea Gilbert, and Messrs. Benjamin Albalas, Leon Gavrilidis, Moisis
Konstantinis, and Avraam Reitan, as well as all human rights defenders in
Greece;
- Conform with the provisions of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders,
adopted by the General Assembly on December 9, 1998, especially its Article 1,
which states that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with
others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realisation of human
rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels”, as
well as above-mentioned Article 12.2;
- More generally, ensure in all circumstances the respect for human rights and
fundamental freedoms in accordance with international and regional human rights
instruments ratified by Greece.
Addresses:
- Mr. George Α. Papandreou, Prime Minister, Prime
Minister’s Office at the Hellenic Parliament, Greek Parliament Blgd,
Constitution Square, Athens, Greece. Fax:
+30 210 6715799, Email: pressoffice@primeminister.gr
- Mr. Dimitris Droutsas, Foreign Minister, Athens, Greece, Fax: + 30
210 3681433, Email: gpap@mfa.gr
- Mr. Charalampos Kastanidis, Minister
of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights, Athens, Greece, Fax +30 2107489231, E-mail: minjust@justice.gr
- Mr. Yorgos Kaminis, Ombudsman for Human Rights, Fax :
+30 210 7289643
- H.E. George J. Kaklikis, Ambassador, Permanent Mission of Greece to the United Nations in Geneva, Rue du Léman 4, 1201
Geneva, Switzerland, Fax: +41 22 732.21.50, Email: missionofgreece@bluewin.ch
or grdel.gva@mfa.gr
- Diplomatic Mission of Greece to the European Union, 25
rue Montoyer, 1000 Brussels, Belgium, Fax: + 32 2 512 79 12 / + 32 2 551 56 51.
Please also write to the embassies of Greece in
your respective country.
***
Geneva, October 11, 2010
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken
quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.
[1] See OMCT Press release, 3
September 2008, “
Greece: Ongoing acts of harassment
against GHM-Case GRE 040408.1 - Follow up of Case GRE 040408”.