A-Infos (en) Greek: BLACK FLAG , Anarchist Counter-Bulletin and Action # 64, November - A testimony from the hellhole at Police Headquarters in Athens (gr)

The text below contains excerpts of recorded transcripts of a conversation with one of the 
comrades arrested at the anti-fascist motorcade on September 30th. A deliberate pause on 
the torture that took place inside the police station – which the state tried fiercely to 
conceal, surpassing absurd extremes. We are well aware that what happened does not 
constitute a deviation. This disclosure is intended to convey the experiences of comrades 
and to break the silence that allows for its recurrence. All that has happened has become 
a motive to reveal the obvious, but has been systematically silenced: That fascist pogroms 
could not continue without the help of the police, that hastens to assault those in 
society who erect barriers against Nazi gang activity. That the state is not “neutral” 
towards “extremists groups” as is often claimed by propaganda, by equating those people 
struggling against state and capitalist brutality to fascist thugs who serve their bosses, 
assaulting activists and the most vulnerable social and class groups. And on the other 
hand, the only weapons of terror and suppression, used for confrontation by a rotten 
political system, are not enough to suppress dignity, resistence and solidarity. Because 
this disclosure of brutality is not a reason for subordination, but a reason for awakening 
and for an uprising of awareness.

Q: Would you like to begin by describing the events of the motorcade?

A: On Sunday, September 30, a third antifascist motorcade took place. There had been 
another two previously in September. The first one in the Metaxouryio, Ayio Pavlo and 
Omonia neighbourhoods and the second at Monastiraki, Ermou and Thisio. That night we began 
from Exarhia around 8 in the evening and rode towards Amerikis Square and the surrounding 
streets. The purpose of the procession was to strengthen immigrants a few days after the 
racist pogrom. It’s true that when passing through these neighbourhoods, there was 
incredible excitement from immigrants. They raised their fists, they clapped, they made 
the sign for victory, they said “thank you”. This was a few minutes before we were 
attacked. It is the last image I have before the police attacked.

Q: At that time were there about 80 motorbikes?

A: Yes, two riders on almost all the bikes, about 150 people.

Q: And the police?

A: We couldn’t see well because it was night and their motorbike lights were on us. There 
were many policemen from the Delta force, upon our arrival to the zone where the fascist 
pogrom had smashed immigrants’ shops. We made a stop at Filis Street and yelled slogans. I 
don’t know how it all began exactly because the volume of the procession was large and the 
street narrow, the bikes were spread lengthwise down the street. From the back of the 
procession I heard bang-bang and flashes from weapons being fired continuously one after 
the other. The police had been following the protest, so they were located at its end. So 
the attack took place from there. Chaos prevailed. Smoke from what they were hurling at us 
was everywhere, we couldn’t see each other clearly. The flash weapons were exploding 
beside us, on us, everywhere. The police were beating the protesters with batons. Cars 
were parked on the right and left. Many motorbikes were immobilized and couldn’t proceed 
due to the volume of the procession. This lasted quite a few minutes. We somehow tried to 
proceed to avoid any more being injured. I was stopped, together with the driver of the 
motorbike we were riding were stopped by a patrol car, a little further down. And we were 
led to police headquarters. Upon arriving to police headquarters I saw another 13 people, 
who were in critical condition, having been badly beaten. Some were bleeding from the 
head, others from the arms and legs. There was a lot of blood. Some couldn’t walk.

Q: Where were you taken exactly?

A: We were on the 6th floor, outside the offices, in the hallway. There were two benches. 
Some had been handcuffed and bleeding. We requested tissue to stop the bleeding but were 
not given any at all. I happened to have a packet of tissues with me and tried to help, 
that is, to try to blot the blood a bit. But the packet wasn’t enough because it wasn’t 
just one injured, there were many who were bleeding. When we asked for paper, the police 
answered, “you won’t have anything, you’ll stay as you are”. As time went by, more 
policemen from the Delta force arrived. There was a small desk at the other end of one of 
the benches where they were all gathered. They called our names out and wrote on a paper 
what clothes we wore, our general description. This is how our supposed identifications 
took place to give them the time “to cook” their statements of where our arrests took 
place and under which circumstances. We understood all this a little later, once we saw 
the charges brought against us. They are all total lies, ie apart from errors they made 
about the place of arrest, they have even made mistakes in descriptions. They couldn’t 
even do that right!

Q: Okay, it’s obvious that the accusations are unjustified. They just had an order to 
knock the procession down and arrested anyone they could as it was dissipating, even from 
a long distance away. The “crime” is essentially participating in an anti-fascist anarchic 
march.

A: That was their aim: to knock over the procession, especially at that site where the 
pogrom had previously taken place. So, the made-up charges, together with a pile of other 
crimes, cannot hold. On the contrary, everyone was very seriously injured on all parts of 
their bodies. As was in the case of one young man who was attacked with a taser. During 
the time of his arrest, he was attacked in the back by a taser gun. He told us that at 
that time, his whole body became paralyzed and he fell down. We also saw him at 
headquarters later, he has a hole in his back, a deap wound from the taser. Anyway, many 
hours went by while we waited there on the benches. Also, we had no water. We had nothing, 
they had taken all our personal items. They denied our request for water. In the garbage 
we found a small bottle and a second one under the bench. We had those two small plastic 
bottles which we filled only when one of us asked to go to the toilet and a policeman 
decided to accompany one of us. Because, using a number of different excuses, they would 
deny even that. We drank water in this manner, one gulp between each 15 of us, every 2-3 
hours. There was a door adjacent which the delta police entered one at a time to give 
their testimonies. There were about 30 of them, most of them sat around the small desk 
that I mentioned, across from us and the rest, along the wall of the corridor. We were 
told a lot there. It’s hard to remember. Threats like “You’ll see who you’ve gone against” 
and “you’ll see if you’ll ever make an anti-fascist (demonstration) again”, “you went 
against Golden Dawn and you’ll see. We are Golden Dawn also”, “you’ll die like your 
grandfathers at Grammo and Vitsi”. They made sexist comments for us girls, very vulgar 
language, things that you never hear anywhere or from anybody out on the street.

Q: How many girls were you?

A: We were two girls. They had focused their wrath against us, they were engaged with only 
us for many hours, cursing and threatening us. Afterwards, they would refer to dead 
fighters, Lambros Fountas, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, Christoforos Marinos, saying that the 
rest of us will go find them soon. In the middle of all this, there was a tall Delta 
police who had his left arm bound up. We could tell who were Delta from their uniforms. He 
would come in between us, stepping on our feet with his boots, smoking and throwing the 
ashes on us. He later took his mobile out and started filming us. He took our pictures 
saying “we have your addresses, we have your names and now we have your faces and now 
Golden Dawn will have everything”. If one of us tried to resist, meaning verbal 
complaints, he would punch and kick that person.

Q: This person specifically?

A: He beat us mostly and the others would accompany him. They cursed, loomed over our 
heads and punched us or banged our heads against the wall. The level of torture isn’t just 
the beating, there are also the threats, attempts at humiliation. They are also forms of 
torture. But there were also physical assaults. I couldn’t take seeing those who were 
bleeding, were being beaten even more. The most injured was one who’s head had been bashed 
and had been bleeding for hours, he was in constant pain and calling for a doctor and 
whenever he spoke, he would get beaten. Whenever he asked for something, they would 
assault him with slaps and punches. Also, because many hours had passed – we had managed 
to hold onto a watch and could tell the time – we would try to close our eyes to rest for 
a couple minutes. We were exhausted, especially those injured. At some point, the young 
man who was bleeding from his head, closed his eyes and laid down. They wouldn’t let him, 
they screamed “Get up, you won’t sleep, get up”. Another one beaten in the face, was 
bleeding from above his nose and from his arm. Others had been beaten in their backs, they 
had baton scars. During their arrests, they had been thrown to the ground and were beaten 
while immobilized. And while thrown to the ground, the police tried to remove the bikers’ 
safety helmets with fury and in danger of choking them since the helmet are tied at the 
neck. Baton injuries were on all parts of their bodies: back, belly, legs, arms. Because 
of the direction of the bench, I kept my legs tucked and my head stooped to avoid them 
photographing my face with mobiles. That specific Delta policeman came over to me and 
started pulling my hair to lift my head to take my picture. The first time that happened, 
one of those arrested sitting next to me, protested. He was assaulted because of his 
protests. The second time I protested when the Delta police came, and I was hit. Because I 
had my arms in front of my face, keeping my elbows high, I was punched in the neck. 
Wherever he succeeded in punching me beause he couldn’t get to my face. He would pull my 
hair and while slapping and punching me.
Q: That specific one? The same one who said that he’s taking pictures to send to Golden Dawn?
A: Yes, and I remember him because his arm was bound. Then he started shooting a video. 
The third time he came over to me, threatening that he knows my home and where I live, I 
still didn’t lift my head and he started beating me again. That’s when I broke into an 
outburst. I pushed him away from me and started to yell and scream to leave us alone, that 
we have been arrested and has no right to do this. During all this chaos I can’t recall 
what I said exactly, but I was shouting very loudly. So, because of my screams, someone 
wearing civilian clothes came into the hallway, maybe it was the Duty Officer, who held 
him back from assaulting me anymore and told those Delta policemen who had testified 
already, to leave. Which means that most of them had already testified hours before and 
just stayed there to continue all this. And from that moment on, he left. I forgot to 
mention that he wasn’t the only one videoing and taking pictures. He had the closest shot 
because he would walk about among us. The others sitting at the desk would video their 
colleague doing those things to us. The assaults stopped but everything else continued. 
They had a lazer with a red beam which they would aim at our eyes whenever we would close 
them to rest a bit. Then they would close the hallway lights and lit a torch on us saying 
“this is how an interrogation is done” and “now I’ll show you how it’s done”. And again 
one of them would come towards us with the torch while the lights were out. They would 
also play with the air-conditioner, resulting in our freezing or over-heating. I stopped 
asking to go to the bathroom because whenever I was taken passed the under-cover and Delta 
policemen in the hallway, they made most horrible remarks. Sexist, cursing, threatening, 
everything. And there were some with their mobiles ready to photograph me as I continued on.

Q: When did this stop?

A: Around 7 in the morning, when all the Delta police left. We had been arrested a little 
past 9 at night. All these hours we didn’t have any contact with a lawyer. The lawyers 
arrived a little after 3 on Monday afternoon. We had been on the sixth floor of Police 
Headquarters for approximately 19 hours. The injured comrade was taken to hospital on 
Monday morning. He had stitches to his head, was bandaged up and had a broken arm. The 
rest of the injured were not seen by doctors. They went directly to the Forensic Surgeon 
on Tuesday. I forgot to mention that: When we were on the sixth floor, we were asked to 
enter an office to be searched one at a time. That is, to have a body search, to strip. A 
body search had already been done on Sunday night. We were then taken to the Prosecutor’s 
offices. The Prosecutor told us that we would be held till Thursday. When we returned to 
headquarters, we were taken to the seventh floor where the cells are located. They called 
us again, one at a time, for body searches. I protested and said that there’s no sense for 
a second check since I’ve been accompanied by police continuously. The policewoman said 
that these are the regulations, she led me to a place – before the holding cells there are 
offices and on the right there is a small room like a storage room. I entered and waited 
for the door to close. She tells me that this door doesn’t close and she will search me 
this way. I say, “what are you talking about? You are going to search me with the door 
open?” Exactly across there was a desk with a policeman working there and other policemen 
coming and going to the offices and to the cells. We were directly across, there was no 
partition, I was in front of an open door.

Q: Similar reports were made by those detained and arrested on Monday, during the attack 
of riot police at a solidarity gathering inside the Evelpidon Courts.

A: Yes, 25 people were detained and four arrested. One was a young lady, they brought her 
later into the cells together with us.
I would like to say something very important to us that even from the first day that we 
were led to the Prosecutor’s office and on Thursday and Friday – after 20 hours in court 
and finally set free on bail and restricting conditions – all these days, the solidarity 
we received from people gave us incredible strength. We gained strength seeing our 
comrades shouting slogans. Without solidarity I really don’t know if we could stand as 
strong as we are now.
Lastly, I would like to note that the reason we are stating and reporting the torture from 
police, is not for reasons of victimizing ourselves. The state has always tried to 
continue in it’s attempt to terrorize in any way and with any means available. Our 
proportion is to highlight the events and through this we become more aware, stronger in 
the fight against the brutality imposed upon us.

* Note: On October 27th, a fourth antifascist motorcade took place shouting slogans and 
crossed central streets of Athens with red and black flags.

greek original: BLACK FLAG, Anarchist Counter-Bulletin and Action issue no. 64, November 2012

translation by: bananasraw
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