From the Greek Helsini Monitor.

European Court of Human Rights rules that Greece violated prohibition of torture and of discrimination in injury of pregnant Romni. Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) expresses great satisfaction on the 6 December 2007 European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) unanimous conviction of Greece in the case of Fani-Yannula Petropoulou-Tsakiris.

Principle facts

The applicant, Fani-Yannula Petropoulou-Tsakiris, is a Greek national of Roma ethnic origin who lives in Nea Zoe, a Roma settlement in Aspropyrgos (Greece).

The case concerned, in particular, the applicant’s allegations that she suffered from a miscarriage as a result of police brutality and that the authorities failed to carry out an adequate investigation into the incident.

On 28 January 2002, a police operation involving 32 police officers was carried out in Nea Zoe following a tip-off about drug trafficking.

The applicant, two-and-a-half months pregnant at the time, claimed that, during that operation, she was waiting to be searched along with other Roma women when she noticed that a disabled relative of hers was being taunted by police officers. On trying to intervene, she was forcefully pushed back by one police officer and kicked in the back by another. She felt intense pain in the abdomen and started bleeding. She was not taken to hospital by the police and, not having any identification documents, feared going of her own accord.

The Government denied the applicant’s version of events and indeed any other allegations that civilians had been assaulted or subjected to racial abuse on 28 January 2002.
On 29 January 2002, members of the Greek Helsinki Monitor rushed the applicant to Elena Venizelou Maternity Clinic. On 1 February 2002 she had a miscarriage. The medical report drawn up at the end of the applicant’s hospitalisation stated that she “was admitted to hospital on 29 January 2002, 10 weeks pregnant, with haemorrhaging from her uterus” and that “on 2 February 2002 there was a complete expulsion of the foetus”.

On 1 February 2002 the applicant lodged a criminal complaint and joined the proceedings as a civil party seeking damages. She also asked to have an independent medical examination, named three witnesses who could testify to her miscarriage and included the address and telephone numbers of her lawyers. She subsequently also requested that Aspropyrgos police officers be excluded from the preliminary investigation since they had participated in the operation and it was most likely one of them who had ill-treated her.

However, Aspropyrgos police carried out the inquiry and, on 28 November 2002, forwarded the file to the Athens Public Prosecutor, indicating that the two police officers who had been interviewed had no knowledge of any ill-treatment. On 10 September 2003, the Prosecutor requested the applicant to be summoned. However, on 16 January 2004 a court bailiff failed to carry out that order because he was unable to find the applicant in Nea Zoe. On 3 July 2004 the Prosecutor closed the file with the conclusion: “Perpetrator unknown”.

In the meantime, due to the publicity generated, the Chief of Greek Police launched an informal investigation into the incident on 5 March 2002. The Deputy Director of Greek Police, A.V., who had been involved in the operation, interviewed five senior police officers who stated that they had not witnessed any ill-treatment of Romas on 28 January 2002. In his report drawn up on 7 March 2002, A.V. concluded that “the complaints are exaggerated… It is in fact a common tactic by the athinganoi (Greek for Roma) to resort to slandering police officers with the obvious purpose of weakening any form of police control”.

Read the full case and the court rulings here

Technorati: greece, european court of human rights, roma