In a short and painless operation that started short after 6 o’ clock in the morning, Greek police ended the occupation of the administrative headquarters of the Athens University after 19 days. Fourteen people have been arrested. They will face misdemeanor charges for “disturbing public peace” as they did not cause any damage to the building nor were they in possession of “illegal stuff.”
According to media, police had given occupiers a deadline of 15 minutes to abandon the building but they had refused to obey. The “dynamic” intervention became inevitable.
Fire service officers used a special saw to cut through the main door and enter the premises while police officers used ladders to gain access to the premises from windows on the first and second floors.
The occupiers — seven women and seven men — did not resist arrest and were led away in handcuffs. Among them was a Cypriot national.
And not only. Greek media report of the arrest of a “leading figure among the anti-authoritarians, a 38-year-old man who had been convicted for assisting fugitive criminal Vassilis Palaiokostas in the abduction of industrialist Giorgos Mylonas in June 2008.”
The man was convicted to 12 years and 10 months imprisonment and he was “arrested again in 2012 and 2014 for violation of restrictive terms of his release,” notes Proto Thema.
The occupation had triggered political tension between the government and the opposition.
PS
A man gets convicted to 12 years imprisonment in 2010 and he is out already “Go figure!” as my cat would say.