(GHM/IFEX) – The following is an abridged version of a GHM press release: Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) appeals to the international community and especially the organizations defending freedom of expression and/or human rights defenders to protest to Greek authorities for the continuing prosecution of journalists and human rights defenders in Greece. Two cases in early […]
(GHM/IFEX) – The following is an abridged version of a GHM press release:
Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) appeals to the international community and especially the organizations defending freedom of expression and/or human rights defenders to protest to Greek authorities for the continuing prosecution of journalists and human rights defenders in Greece. Two cases in early 2006 highlight the intimidation through prosecution used to threaten the right to free expression in Greece.
On 7 February 2006, journalist Makis Nodaros was to be tried before the Three-Member Misdemeanors Court of Amaliada (Peloponnesus) for aggravated defamation by the press, punishable with a prison sentence between three months and five years plus a deprivation of civil rights. The indictment is based on an 11 September 2004 article in the local Pyrgos-based daily “Proti,” in which the journalist was expressing his concern for the sexual exploitation of a minor that had, inter alia, resulted in her giving birth to a child from an unknown father.
The article did not mention any name or specific municipality. Yet the regional Appeals Prosecutor ordered the local First Instance Prosecutor to press charges against the journalist for the defamation of a specific individual who had been summoned by local police for interrogation, possibly in response to the newspaper article. This is only the most recent in a series of trials against Makis Nodaros since 1999, following and related to his several investigative articles revealing corruption of local police and state agencies. The trial was postponed for 31 October 2006, as the defendant’s lawyer was unable to attend the hearings.
On 14 March 2006, Professor Takis Alexiou – academic, writer, artist, founder of the Greek Rumi Committee, and past president of the Panhellenic Historical and Philosophical Society (PANIFE) – is to be tried on appeal before the Three-Member Misdemeanors Appeals Court of Rhodes. He was sentenced on 1 July 2005 by the same court to twenty-five months in prison, mainly for allegedly defamatory actions in the summer of 2003. He was considered the mastermind of a divorce-related conflict, supposedly through his having full control of the consciousness of those involved through his teachings and various other methods, including hypnosis.
The outrageous reasoning of the Court was based on the testimony of a Father of the Greek Orthodox Church’s “Synodical Commission on Heresies (Sects),” which considers the Greek Rumi Committee a “sect” and claims that the heresies which it propagates “threaten to corrupt [Greece’s] religious and national identities.” The Greek Rumi Committee studies the work of Mevlana Celaledin Rumi, a 13th century philosopher, poet and humanist, included by UNESCO on its list of humanity’s cultural heritage.
Takis Alexiou has in recent years been the object of several judicial investigations based on similar unfounded charges instigated by the “anti-sect” movement; none led to any conviction. The Athens Dailies Journalists’ Union (ESIEA) considers the conviction as a violation of freedom of expression, as does Amnesty International.
