The latest death of an incarcerated prisoner in a central Athens police precinct has generated an internal investigation after several media reports cited tell-tale signs of abuse on the victim’s body. The incident was first rapidly disseminated on social media and even sparked at least one street protest.
Additionally, a relevant prosecutor has ordered a preliminary investigation into the matter, with testimonies taken and crime scene technicians called in to collect possible evidence. Later on Friday, an announcement by the Ombudsman’s office said a separate probe would be opened into the incident.
The most crucial element of the ongoing investigation, a coroner’s report, is pending and expected to be released in days or possibly over the weekend.
The victim was identified as “M.K.A.”, 38-year-old male Pakistani national, who according to some, as yet unconfirmed reports, held a temporary residency permit and was legally in the country for years.
The first press reports regarding the incident circulated on Thursday and cited unnamed people, who were quoted as saying they knew the victim; that he was missing for days, spoke Greek, had a known residence and a residency card.
Scrutiny of prisoner deaths while in police custody, especially when invovling foreign nationals and irregular migrants, has been heightened over the past few years due to a handful of suspicious fatalaties, especially in urban districts, and accompanying allegations of police brutality.
An official Greek Police (EL.AS) announcement on Friday states that the man was not in possession of an ID at the time of his arrest. He was also described as homeless and the victim of an assault by unknown suspects before being arrested and transported to the Aghios Panteleimonas precinct on Sept. 18.
The specific police station is located amid a congested district now described as “inner city”, and plagued with a higher crime rate than corresponding Athens municipal districts, along with a higher percentage of foreign-born residents.
The hastily issued law enforcement announcement followed an outcry on Greek-language social media a day earlier and postings on a well-known anti-state/anti-establishment webpage calling for mass street protests over the incident. Similar protests in the past have turned violent, replete with vandalism and the tossing of firebombs.
The announcement stated that the man was arrested outside an apartment building in the same area late on the evening of Sept. 18 after a woman called police to charge that a man first followed her on the street and attempted to violently enter her building. The same police press release claimed the man showed signs of severe injuries to the face and was in a state of extreme distress due to the influence of narcotics or alcohol, whereupon he was restrained and an ambulance summoned.
The detailed report adds that the woman who initially called police declined to later file charges, while a further investigation into his identity allegedly revealed he was previously arrested days earlier on a domestic violence charge.
Another angry outburst in the precinct’s bathroom was cited and paramedics’ assessment that the man’s injuries did not require hospitalization.
A handful of misdemeanors were filed, with the most serious being destruction of private property. He was immediately tried in what’s essentially a “night court” process under Greek criminal law, found guilty and handed down a 29-month sentence, with 25 months suspended for three years.
Before his transfer to a correctional facility he died in the early morning hours of Saturday, Sept. 21, according to an ambulance crew’s report.
