same time, for the irst time ater almost a whole year, with the general investigation into Golden Dawn’s criminal activities having begun, the judiciary also decided to pursue the criminal acts committed outside the theatre by the MP, E. Panagiotaros. To summarize all of the above in a phrase that may seem provocative but certainly not untrue, we could say that in present-day Greece, you may well be a racist and a Nazi, because the Greek judiciary believes that this is protected freedom of speech. Yet you may never be blasphemous. In that case, Nazis along with fundamentalists are free to attack you, and, what is more, the judiciary is free to prosecute you as well... 6/ PETTING ULTRA-RIGHT REFLEXES: HUMILIATING EXPOSURE AS A BAN ON EXISTENCE On 2 February 2012, the General Police Division of Western Macedonia issued a press release64 regarding the arrest of four persons for armed robberies in the town of Velvendo, Kozani. On the same day, Hellenic Police Headquarters issued a communiqué65 stating that these four persons were accused of serious felonies, including participation in a terrorist organization. At the same time, the Kozani prosecutor of irst instance ordered public disclosure of the identities and photos of the four arrested persons. However, these photos showed the faces of the arrested blatantly abused and even deformed. A crude photoshop job had been performed to clean up their injuries and make them somewhat recognizable. According to Minister of Citizen Protection Nikos Dendias, in a TV interview ater the outcry stirred by the photos in question, “If we had not used Photoshop, in order to make them match the image that common people may have had of them, there would have been no point in disclosing the photos”.66 The next day, the police was forced to issue another communiqué stating that during the operation that led to the arrests, only “the absolutely necessary and judicially allowable physical force” had been used.67 In this way, the police tried to justify the physical abuse they had committed, and that had been made public with the prosecutor’s concurrence. Ater the public outcry, there was eventually a prosecutor’s order to investigate the events. 64. 65. 66. 67. See http://www.astynomia.gr/index.php?option=ozo_content&lang=%27..%27&perfor m=view&id=24417&Itemid=1055&lang=. See www.astynomia.gr/index.php?option=ozo_content&lang=’..’&perform=view&id=2 4429&Itemid=1058&lang=. See http://www.mopocp.gov.gr/index.php?option=ozo_content&lang=&perform=view&id =4489&Itemid=564. See http://www.astynomia.gr/index.php?option=ozo_content&lang=%27..%27&perfor m=view&id=24446&Itemid=1055&lang= MAPPING ULTRA-RIGHT EXTREMISM, XENOPHOBIA AND RACISM WITHIN THE GREEK STATE APPARATUS | 57