restriction on freedom of speech and dissemination of ideas … since, on the
one hand, the Bishop would not be able to freely disseminate his views on God,
under the pressure of a possible criminal prosecution against him, and, on the
other, the applicants would not be able to freely disseminate their own views on
atheism as well, under the pressure of a similar possibility”.
According to the case ile from another court decision on the interpretation and application of the anti-racist law, during the military parade of 25 March 2010,
a contingent from the Underwater Demolition Command of the Hellenic Coast
Guard publicly expressed ofending views against others on grounds of national
origin. Ater marching past the VIP stage at Syntagma Square, they continued
in step and shouted the following slogans at the public: “One is born a Greek,
one does not become a Greek. Albanian pigs, we will make you bleed”. “Whether
Albanian or Skopjian, I will make my clothes out of their skin”. “There will be
mayhem, then I will have my revenge, when you will have bent the knee before
our symbols and the Cross”. Out of 39 accused oicers, the Admiralty Court of
Piraeus eventually convicted two, who, according to the Court, appear clearly to
shout these slogans in a video of the incident. The other 37 were acquitted on
reasonable doubt.52 The clear unwillingness of the Court to convict coast guard
oicers for the odious things they had shouted while in uniform, in the midst
of a military parade on the nation’s Independence Day, was made all the more
evident by the sentence imposed on the two convicted oicers: three and a half
months.
4/
INCITEMENT TO VIOLENCE IN A “ZERO TOLERANCE REGIME
AGAINST ANOMIE”
There are numerous cases in which members of Golden Dawn did not just
express opinions that might have threatened vital legal rights, but actually
declared speciic criminal intent, including such that later materialized. The
emblematic Nazi statement by the leader of Golden Dawn, according to which
“bayonets will be sharpened on the sidewalks”53, did not draw the attention of
the judiciary. In other cases, however, clear incitements to violence could have
been immediately connected with subsequent violent acts. There as well, the
Greek judiciary failed to take action. Let us consider the following cases as a
small sample that establishes the general context of inaction.
52.
53.
52 |
Let us note that the Prosecutor had asked for the conviction of all defendants on
grounds of “hair-raising slogans calling for the physical extinction of Albanian and
Skopjan citizens”. He further mentioned that this was a case of a specially trained
military body that normally follows orders as a collective unit, and asked that his view
be formally and wholly transcripted, something extremely unusual. Unfortunately, the
decision has not been published, and thus we have not been able to read the full text
of the Prosecutor’s suggestion.
See http://www.koutipandoras.gr/43163/%CF%8C%CF%84%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%BF-%CE%BC%CE%B9%CF%87%CE%B1%CE%BB%CE%BF%CE%BB%CE%B9
%CE%AC%CE%BA%CE%BF%CF%82-%CE%B1%CF%80%CE%B5%CE%B9%CE%BB%CE%BF%CF%8D%CF%83%CE%B5.html.
ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG
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