Friday, January 9, 2009

Anti - government protests - Thessaloniki, Greece

Thousands of students and other groups took to the streets of Athens and Thessaloniki yesterday to protest the present Greek government and its policies.

The government has announced that it has decided on a policy of zero tolerence in dealing with Greece's recent wave of unrest and the change in the ruling New Democracy party's change in tactics was seen in a more aggresive stance on the part of the MAT (Greek riot police) on Friday.

However, the change has proved to be less effective than hoped for as most of the arrests carried out the Athens authorities turned out to be lawyers acting as volunteer legal advisors to those taking part in yesterday's march. The 18 lawyers have filed a suit against deputy minister for law and order, after the head of the riot squad that detained them said that he was carrying out a "political decision", according a report on the Greek TV station Skai's, web site.

In addition the Athenian union of newspaper correspondents (ESIEA) have officially complained to the ministry of law and order over the beating of journalists and other members of the media by the police during yesterday's march.

http://my.nowpublic.com/world/greek-protests-resume-after-holiday-lull







Also the independent Greek news agency tvxs.gr posted video of riot police intimidating innocent citizens after the march. If you fast forward to 9 mins you'll see them harrassing a senior citizen who dared to question their authority.

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