94 . . Race & Class 48(2) After a football match between Albania and Greece in Tirana in 2004 (which ended with Albania winning 2-1), Greeks in various towns and cities organised themselves into gangs to carry out beatings of Albanians whom they found celebrating, while the police did not intervene. One Albanian migrant was left dead on the island of Zakynthos and more than fifty were injured.8 In January 2006, following a fight between Greek and Albanian youths outside a club in Rethymno on the island of Crete, a 17-year-old Albanian was stabbed seventeen times and killed, after seven attackers, including two brothers and their father, entered his home. The victim was not thought to have participated in the earlier fight. Later on the same day, a number of Albanian migrants holding candles demonstrated against racism in Rethymno town centre. Local police officers commented that relations between Greeks and Albanians in the town were ‘harmonious’ and that ‘the incident was isolated’.9 Police racism Furthermore, a number of police officers are themselves responsible for victimising migrants and minorities in their daily activities. Amnesty International has documented several cases that highlight police attitudes towards Albanian migrants, who are increasingly subjected to ‘fishing expeditions’ for illegal immigrants. In one incident, a 16-yearold Albanian, who was picked up by Athens police in February 2001 during a search for illegal immigrants, was rushed to hospital with a ruptured spleen. Police returned to the hospital after a week to rearrest him, only for him to be taken back to hospital ten days later. In a second documented incident, a Lesbos police officer was accused of using torture on an Albanian migrant with legal status.10 In December 2004, police officers allegedly raided a house in Athens where around fifty Afghans lived, hounded them into one room and carried out beatings. One 17-year-old boy was reportedly taken to a police station where he was undressed and a gun was pressed to his temple as officers threatened to kill him.11 There have also been a number of cases of deaths involving police officers. In April 2002, a police officer was given a two-year suspended sentence for shooting dead a Roma man in 1996 and, in July of the same year, a police officer was indicted for the manslaughter of an Albanian immigrant in November 2001.12 Another officer was charged with the murder of Marinos Christopoulous, a 21-year-old Romani man, who was killed after an incident with police in October 2001 in Zefyri.13 In addition to these kinds of incidents, the police frequently adopt racist attitudes towards migrants and carry out a number of offensive Downloaded from http://rac.sagepub.com at Athens Univ. of Economics on June 25, 2007 © 2006 Institute of Race Relations. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.