Activists Attacked by Plevris
Published by deviousdiva January 14th, 2008 in Anti-Semitism.Via Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights
Attacks on human rights activists in Greece by supporters of Plevris.
Since the end of the trial, K. Plevris launched a series of legal actions against P. Dimitras, GHM activist Andrea Gilbert and the four members of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS) Moses Konstantinis, Benjamin Albala, Abraham Reitan, and Leon Gavriilidis) who had testified against him. Although these lawsuits contain racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic statements, the Greek courts have surprisingly registered them and have even set trial dates in 2008
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network:
Calls up the Greek justice to vigilance considering that freedom of expression must not be a shelter for ideas inciting to violence and hatred.
Alerts the European Union regarding the degradation of the working conditions of human rights activists in Greece and the tense environment in which they operate.
Reiterates its full support to the activists who fight against racism and anti-Semitism.
Technorati: human rights, greece, antisemitism, law, activism
I don’t konw how is it in Greece, but in Portugal, my country (and any civilized country, as a matter of fact) the judges can’t refuse to accep and regist lawsuits, based on the political beliefs of persons, or in the statements of the lawsuits. Judges should’t have that power. That’s a third world thing. How is it in the United States or Britain?
Anyway, I hope the good guys win. Racism, anti-semitism and homophobia are not goo things. Let the Justice decide.
antonio, I’m sure judges can refuse to accept them if they are manifestly ill-founded.
a note about the system in greece for those not familiar with it:
it is common practice for the courts to accept more or less everything in terms of claims and appeals. that’s why pretty much every case ends up in the supreme courts even though it might be of trivial importance, and a minor dispute will take an average of 10 years to come to an end. when a party to one case goes against the witnesses in the case trying to discredit them by claiming purgery, they counterclaim for defamation etc. that is a major reason why one claim gives birth to another 10, and final verdicts take forever.
it is the standard tactic almost all lawyers apply in greece. it’s not really a choice because if the other party does it then you get dragged into it.
as to the content of the lawsuits, I guess the activists can always counterclaim. It’s sad, but that’s how it works (or rather doesn’t)
I also think that panayote and the other activists knew what they where getting into, and knew that pleuris will be dragging them in the court for ages to come, and still they went ahead and did it. very few people have the courage to put themselves so openly in the line of fire, and they deserve tremendous respect for that.
Danilena, off course the judge can refuse a ill founded lawsuit. I wasn’t talking about that, neither DD. We don’t know nothing about the foundations of the lawsuit. The only thing we know is that the lawsuits contains certain statements.
Prosecutors do not launch judicial investigations when criminal complaints are manifestly unfounded: so says the Criminal Procedure Code. Yet they have launched them.
Prosecutors when in presence of manifestly criminal actions have to launch ex officio judicial investigations. The criminal complaints against the Jewish religion, the Jewish activists and us include texts and phrases that are manifestly racist -and were part of the book that led to the criminal conviction of Plevris. Yet the prosecutors have not launched ex officio judicial investigations.
Likewise, most of what was said in court by the neo-Nazis and their supporters, as well as some prosecutors or judges were overtly racist and prosecutable. Just like the disruption o0f court procedures in the attack against me. Yet there was no ex officio prosecution of these actions that happened during a trial, an aggravating circumstance according to the law.
Finally, in civil matters (lawsuits) judges when in presence of manifestly abusive elements (that include in our opinion racist speech of the kind that led to the conviction) should either throw out the lawsuit as abusive or have it corrected before it is taken to court.
panayote, isn’t all this ECtHR material ? right to a fair trial etc ? fair trial and non-discrimination immediately come to mind…
I was just informing those who seemed not to be aware of the law in Greece.
Of course the whole issue of implementation of the anti-racist legislation will go/has gone to the ECtHR.
As for the harassment matters some require domestic action fisrt, and some are advocacy matters more than litigation issues.
“lol”
COMMENT EDITED BY DEVIOUS DIVA
Whoever wrote this comment needs to grow up… DD