The second day of trial proved to be even more ludicrous. Mr. Barbalias claimed that the injuries on the defendants’ sculls could not have been caused by staff truncheons as these are especially made of a material that is meant to leave no scars. What is more, Mr. Barbalias attested, he had often used his truncheon against people at football games125 and demonstrations and he had never seen any injuries caused.126 Under pressure from the prosecutor and the defendants’ lawyer, he had to admit that he did not think the detainees meant to escape. In their defense statement, the eight accused claimed they were forcefully beaten for the sole reason of requesting information about their immigration cases. Two said they were sleeping when they heard the shouting during the beatings and rushed to help their fellow detainees. The prosecutor highlighted that the officers’ testimonies were unreliable and that the defendants should be acquitted. Nonetheless, on 23 May 2018, just one year after what seemed a violent suppression of a legitimate request and despite glaring evidence of their innocence, the eight defendants were found guilty of revolt against the regime, causing physical damages and unlawful possession of weapons (i.e., the door hinge).127 The episode described above is not a unique case. The vast majority of detained persons do not have any information regarding their detention, nor any understanding of their legal situation. The only papers handed to them explain in Greek why they are being detained. CPT findings from 2018 add that ‘there was an almost total lack of available interpretation services in all the establishments visited’ (CPT, 2020a, p. 36) and that ‘access to a lawyer often remained theoretical and illusory for those who did not have the financial means to pay for the services of a lawyer’ (CPT, 2020a, p. 35). As a result, the lack of any information in a language they understand often leaves them in limbo about their future. Fighting back through demanding to know about their cases is their way of pushing the detention system to acknowledge them; it confirms their existence when all physical evidence of their existence is written away. On the other hand, as highlighted in previous chapters, physical violence by police officers against foreign nationals in detention centres in Greece is not From the early 1980s onwards, football hooliganism spread across the country, and rapidly became a regular feature of football matches (Tsoukala, 2011). 126 For more on the policing of demonstrations and ongoing human rights violations by law enforcement officials in Greece, see Amnesty International (2014). 127 Lawyers I have interviewed claimed that this was the only outcome that would please both parties, the detainees and the administration. If the detainees were to be acquitted, the officers would have to be charged for physically attacking them. The sentences they were given, meant that they would be released and not returned to the Petrou Ralli facility, where they would be further targeted by the same officers that attacked them in the first place. 125 184