Torture Case
Published by deviousdiva December 3rd, 2007 in Legal Issues.This letter was published in the Athens News on the 9th of November. Necati Zontul has been fighting his battle for justice since he was beaten and sexually abused by Greek coastguards in 2001. You can read details of the case here.
Telling of torture
IT IS clear from the report by the Germany-based NGO Pro Asyl that the Greek ministry of merchant marine has not learned any of the lessons from the trial of my assailants in 2004.
People are still being mistreated on arrival in Greece. The NGO says that in many cases the abuse amounts to torture. This is hardly surprising to me.
Not only was every effort, including physical threats, made to prevent my testifying about my experiences to a Greek court, but also, after my assailants were found guilty both of torturing those who arrived in Crete with me in 2001 and of sexually abusing me, the British government had considerable difficulty extracting information about my case from the Greek government.
I understand that my assailants have now had their sentences dramatically reduced to small fines and that they remain in uniform in contradiction of UN guidelines regarding the punishment of troops convicted of torture. The Greek ombudsman has written to the merchant ministry twice, recommending that they write to me and express at least sympathy for what I suffered, even if they cannot bring themselves to issue a formal apology. I have heard nothing from them.
Necati Zontul
Technorati: greece, torture, abuse, immigrants, coast guard
This is probably the best-documented case of abuse of asylum-seekers or illegal migrants in Greece, and is slightly unusual because of the sexual content. However, the extremely violent behaviour of the Greek border guard and coastguard has been noted in all relevant reports to the European Commission, and I have also commented on it to officials in the Foreign Ministry.
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It is a scandal of international proportions that a country which has been in the EU since 1981 cannot accept responsibility for the standards and behaviour of its own officials. The issue is not so much that it occurred, because such things can occur in any country, but that the Greek government and ministries refuse to apologise, accept any responsibility or impose proper punishment on the officials concerned. This indicates an arrogance and flagrant defiance of international human rights standards which are not appropriate for a European country.
thank you so much for the comment, Mr Baldwin - Edwards. It is very comforting to see such support in print! Sadly, the Greek Government is a master at playing the EU Bureaucrats and again and again we catch them lying through their teeth. At the moment, a year after the Foreign Ministry promised to send us the legal papers, we still await the greek version of the court decisions. These, as the MFA know only too well, are very important if we are to take this case any further.
If I cannot win in the lawcourts, I shall press my case in the 4th estate! So, I am working with my partner Tim Wilson to make some short documentaries about my experience. These are cutting-edge films mixing animation and live action. Despite the subject matter, I am determined that these films are also humorous and memorable. I want people to know what happened to me. While it took place in Greece, I have no doubt that other countries will follow Greece’s example and unless the thugs who raped me are really brought to justice and unless the Government accepts responsibility, like a cankor, torture will gnaw across Europe, and what happened to me will happen to other innocent men, women and children, while their assailants continue to wear the national uniform.
Regarding the rarity of the sexual assault- this tells us more about Greece’s failure to register male rape as a crime, and to prosecute sexual abuse cases properly. I know of a number of other cases like mine. And rape, of course, is not so much about sex as power.
My greatest sadness, which Tim shares and probably feels more deeply as an Orthodox himself, is that the former archbishop never apologised for his comment that all Turks are barbarians. This was made the day Tim approached his office for help, so we have always taken it as a direct response. We lay much of the racist upsurge in Greece at his feet and his successor, though a more moderate man, still fails to offer any apology.
The scandal you refer to is all the worse because Greece tries to preach human rights and to offer legal assistance to countries like Turkey that want to join the EU. But of course the EU has no real sanctions against a country like Greece which does its own thing regardless of how wrong it may be and how many people it hurts.
Anyway, thanks for your comment.