



Greek police accused of using 'human shield'


Helena Smith

A woman was reportedly used as a human shield by authorities during a protest in Athens.

A woman was reportedly used as a human shield by authorities during a protest in Athens. Photo:

ATHENS: Greek authorities have launched an investigation into allegations that riot police used a female protester as a human shield during demonstrations over a visit to Athens by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, this week.

Witnesses said the young woman, who has yet to be identified, was frogmarched in handcuffs ahead of riot police as protesters threw stones at officers.

Magistrates have launched a separate inquiry into a report that protesters arrested after clashing with supporters of the neo-nazi Golden Dawn party were tortured at the Attica General Police Directorate. Human Rights Watch said accountability for police abuse was urgently needed.

The group said: "The scenes described by the victims to reporters are deeply shocking. No one should be treated that way by police. Greece needs to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation of their allegations."

The inquiry into the human shield allegations was opened after photographs began to circulate on the internet, triggering condemnation of the tactics law enforcement officials stand increasingly accused of employing in Greece.

"It is being investigated," said Lieutenant Colonel Christos Manouras, Greece's police spokesman. "We want to find out what these pictures hide."

In the pictures, a young woman, her face daubed in white anti-teargas solution, with a pink rucksack on her back, is seen being escorted by riot police before being placed in front of the unit when it encounters stone-throwing protesters. Witnesses said the woman appeared disoriented and terrified.

Foula Pharmacides, a shipping company employee, had taken part in the demonstration outside parliament, but fled down a side street off Syntagma Square when police fired teargas to disperse the crowds. She described terror on the woman's face.

"As the squad moved down Xenofontos Street with the girl, the protesters appeared. Then when the protesters started throwing things, the cop holding the girl takes her from the front of the unit to the back to face them and he starts moving her like a shield from left to right.

"The girl was falling down and he was picking her up. She was crying and clearly terrified. I couldn't believe it. You only ever see this sort of thing in the movies. Everyone started screaming 'Shame on you! Shame on you!' I remember there were two women next to me and they were crying, too, and screaming for the police to stop."

Another witness, Sokratis Michalopoulos, said: "I don't think I will ever forget her face. It was as if she were an object not a human being and I think she was in shock. She was definitely being used as a shield. Thank God photographers were there and we now have cameras on phones otherwise people would think we were mad. No one would believe us."


They have been attributed to the force's links with Golden Dawn, whose popularity has surged on the back of soaring crime and anti-immigrant hysteria.

"The police are angry. They are overstretched and underpaid and becoming increasingly anti-government and radicalised, in this case to the right," said Panos Garganas, a prominent leftist activist.

Guardian News & Media

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