Letter from the arrestee C.K.

Letter from a 22-year-old man who was hospitalized after he was violently detained from a police squad while leaving the DIY concert of the free radio station 98 FM at Athens Polytechnic School on Friday, July 8th (after midnight).

On July 14th an investigating judge visited Erithros Stavros [Red Cross] Hospital where C.K. has been hospitalized, since he was beaten fiercely by cops on Friday, just outside the Polytechnic. The investigating judge stated that C.K. is ‘dangerous to public security’ and she issued a decision for his pre-trial incarceration. When she saw the heavy injuries of C.K., she had the audacity to say that ‘policemen don’t do such things’ and she didn’t bother to ask anything else regarding the incident.

C.K. is facing felony charges as a result of one cop’s testimony against him. We call everyone who was present during the time of the arrest and the beating, to help as a witness in this case.

‘At dawn on Saturday, July 9th, while I was leaving from a concert in Polytechnio (Athens) heading at Bouboulinas Street, I was suddenly attacked by a police squad which was in a nearby alley. About ten men of a riot police unit (MAT) attacked me, beating me violently with their police duty batons, but also with punches and kicks. They were beating me mostly on the head and the ribs with great fury; many of them had their batons turned upside down hitting with the naked metallic end, swearing at the same time with unspeakable phrasing.

Few minutes later, while I was in bleeding and semi-unconscious condition they dragged me to the nearby patrol van where they washed me down with water, ethyl (grain) alcohol and any kind of fluid they happened to have around.

At about 03.45 am, I was transferred to the police HQ. Although my situation was really bad, nobody paid any attention. I was asking for a doctor telling them that I am in pain, and they replied that first we must be done with the proceedings. They left me bleeding in a corridor, indifferent [to my critical medical situation] even when I lost my senses.

The next morning they announced me that I have been arrested and accused that… I threw a Molotov cocktail against the police squad.

Although I had a deep trauma wound few centimeters deep in the middle of my skull and was bleeding in various parts of my body, I was refused the transfer to a hospital; they stated that first I had to appear before the prosecutor. After they transferred me to the court where I was formally accused of two felonies and two misdemeanors (explosion, possession of explosives, disturbing public peace and insulting). Then I was transferred to the hospital.

From my meeting with the “security” forces, apart from the accusations and the immediate risk to be temporarily detained, I was “free gifted” a series of physical injuries. In more particular, I suffer a head fracture in the middle of the skull, deep skin ripping of the head that needed 9 stitches, a broken tooth, skin cuts to the face and the ears, elbow and shoulder fractures, deep wound in the legs that also needed 10 stitches, knee dislocation, multiple and of high-intensity wounds from batons to the ribs and the back, which caused me kidney failure.

I am hospitalized guarded by policemen who try to make my hospitalization more difficult. They have come to the point to forbid even the turning off the lighting across the nursing room, requiring me and the other patients to sleep with the light on.

The most outraging is that the legal document that was issued, apart from the false accusations against me, doesn’t refer in the slightest to my abuse. There is only the statement of one cop (none of the rest of the police squad men got in the trouble to testify, either because they didn’t notice anything or they fear to take responsibility of their actions). The only thing that this policeman noticed was me throwing a Molotov cocktail and then being arrested (with all the apparent legibility).

I do not know yet if there is any permanent health damage caused on me. What I surely know is that they wanted to kill me.

Here are some pictures of the outcome of my encounter with the police; I call anyone who witnessed the attack against me or has any photographic material, to contact me at this e-mail: solidarity_xk@yahoo.gr.

C.K.’

Source: athens.indymedia