update on NECATI ZONTUL
tim Wilson | 29.10.2004 08:24 | Repression
A climate of censorship and repression still clings to modern Greece, and reports about the trial of the Coastguard who assaulted Necati modify the facts quite freely and continue to undermine Necati's credibility. This is in line with earlier actions that tried to styop him testifying at all. It is a shame!
Since 15th October when his case finally came to trial, and 5 men were convicted of torture and sexual assault, the Greek media has variously diluted or wrongly reported the facts. This seems to be in line with the intimidation we suffered before the trial. I am printing the report from Friday in the Athens News. Note the use of the word "claim" in this article and "tried to assault" in the article from Kathimerini. The Athens News has a longer letter from us reprinted on Indy News before, but has so far failed to publish it.
Migrant-beating trial ends in suspended sentences
KATHY TZILIVAKIS
A NAVAL court in Hania, Crete, found five Greek coastguard officers guilty of physically and sexually abusing a group of migrants smuggled to the island four years ago. The officers, however, walked out of the court free men on October 16 after receiving suspended sentences.
The victims were part of a group of some 160 migrants on board a Turkish smuggling boat towed into Souda harbour by the coastguard on 30 May 2001. This is one of the very few times officers in Greece are convicted on charges of torture and abuse.
One of the officers, Stylianos Dandoulakis, was found guilt of sexually abusing a man in the toilet. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison suspended for five years. Constantine Vardakis, who was charged with abetting Dandoulakis, received a 12-month suspended prison sentence.
Ioannis Florakis, Ioannis Lefakis and Athanassios Moumtzis, were charged with physically abusing many of the migrants. All three received an 18-month suspended prison sentence.
The migrants (119 men, 20 women and 25 children), mainly Kurds from Turkey, Iraq and Iran, as well as Turks, Afghans, Pakistanis, Eritreans and Ethiopians, were held at the port town's old merchant marine academy. It was there that the six coastguard officers allegedly beat the migrants. Turkish migrant Necati Zontul says he was sexually assaulted.
According to human rights groups Amnesty International and the Greek Helsinki Monitor, all the adult male migrants said they were punched and kicked by the officers and that at least 10 of them were severely beaten and threatened.
ATHENS NEWS , 22/10/2004, page: A15
Article code: C13101A153
from Kathimerini
(Monday)
Five guilty of migrant abuse
A military court in the Cretan town of Hania has found five coast guard officers guilty of beating up a group of Kurdish illegal immigrants in heir custody three years ago.
But in a decision made public on Saturday, the court proceeded to give sspended sentences of 12 to 30 months' imprisonment to the five officers. A sixth defendant was cleared.
The 24 immigrants who suffered abuse were part of a group of 164 people held in coast guard installations in Souda, near Hania, after arriving in Greek waters on a battered vessel from Turkey in June 2001.
Among the witnesses was the former commander of the Souda coast guardstation, Diamantis Vassilagoudis, who said several of the detainees had complained to him of being beaten up by the men under his command. He also confirmed that two of the officers had tried to sexually assault one of the migrants.
In mid-September, the Defense Ministry admitted that army commandos on the remote eastern Aegean islet of Farmakonissi had violently abused a group of illegal immigrants who landed there. An investigation was ordered, but its results have still to be made public.
Large numbers of illegal immigrants reach Greek shores every year, mostly in rickety vessels that leave from Turkey.
Yesterday, coast guard officers rescued 34 illegal migrants from a sinking boat off the island of Leros in the Dodecanese, and were searching the seas off Lesvos for another migrant ship that was reported to be trouble in the area. The 34 migrants - 25 men, three women and six children - were located some 8 kilometers off Leros after a migrant couple told police in Athens that their daughter, who was on the boat, had contacted them by cellphone to seek help.
The second search operation was under way until late yesterday off Lesvos for traces of a vessel thought to be carrying illegal migrants. The search was hampered by high winds of up to 8 on the Beaufort scale.
The coast guard has arrested over 20 more illegal migrants on Lesvos and
in the southern Peloponnese over the past three days.
Migrant-beating trial ends in suspended sentences
KATHY TZILIVAKIS
A NAVAL court in Hania, Crete, found five Greek coastguard officers guilty of physically and sexually abusing a group of migrants smuggled to the island four years ago. The officers, however, walked out of the court free men on October 16 after receiving suspended sentences.
The victims were part of a group of some 160 migrants on board a Turkish smuggling boat towed into Souda harbour by the coastguard on 30 May 2001. This is one of the very few times officers in Greece are convicted on charges of torture and abuse.
One of the officers, Stylianos Dandoulakis, was found guilt of sexually abusing a man in the toilet. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison suspended for five years. Constantine Vardakis, who was charged with abetting Dandoulakis, received a 12-month suspended prison sentence.
Ioannis Florakis, Ioannis Lefakis and Athanassios Moumtzis, were charged with physically abusing many of the migrants. All three received an 18-month suspended prison sentence.
The migrants (119 men, 20 women and 25 children), mainly Kurds from Turkey, Iraq and Iran, as well as Turks, Afghans, Pakistanis, Eritreans and Ethiopians, were held at the port town's old merchant marine academy. It was there that the six coastguard officers allegedly beat the migrants. Turkish migrant Necati Zontul says he was sexually assaulted.
According to human rights groups Amnesty International and the Greek Helsinki Monitor, all the adult male migrants said they were punched and kicked by the officers and that at least 10 of them were severely beaten and threatened.
ATHENS NEWS , 22/10/2004, page: A15
Article code: C13101A153
from Kathimerini
(Monday)
Five guilty of migrant abuse
A military court in the Cretan town of Hania has found five coast guard officers guilty of beating up a group of Kurdish illegal immigrants in heir custody three years ago.
But in a decision made public on Saturday, the court proceeded to give sspended sentences of 12 to 30 months' imprisonment to the five officers. A sixth defendant was cleared.
The 24 immigrants who suffered abuse were part of a group of 164 people held in coast guard installations in Souda, near Hania, after arriving in Greek waters on a battered vessel from Turkey in June 2001.
Among the witnesses was the former commander of the Souda coast guardstation, Diamantis Vassilagoudis, who said several of the detainees had complained to him of being beaten up by the men under his command. He also confirmed that two of the officers had tried to sexually assault one of the migrants.
In mid-September, the Defense Ministry admitted that army commandos on the remote eastern Aegean islet of Farmakonissi had violently abused a group of illegal immigrants who landed there. An investigation was ordered, but its results have still to be made public.
Large numbers of illegal immigrants reach Greek shores every year, mostly in rickety vessels that leave from Turkey.
Yesterday, coast guard officers rescued 34 illegal migrants from a sinking boat off the island of Leros in the Dodecanese, and were searching the seas off Lesvos for another migrant ship that was reported to be trouble in the area. The 34 migrants - 25 men, three women and six children - were located some 8 kilometers off Leros after a migrant couple told police in Athens that their daughter, who was on the boat, had contacted them by cellphone to seek help.
The second search operation was under way until late yesterday off Lesvos for traces of a vessel thought to be carrying illegal migrants. The search was hampered by high winds of up to 8 on the Beaufort scale.
The coast guard has arrested over 20 more illegal migrants on Lesvos and
in the southern Peloponnese over the past three days.
tim Wilson
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necati zontul updates
12.10.2005 20:48
OPEN LETTER: 12th October 2005
HE President Papoulias,
Odos Stissichorou 17
Athens
Greece 10674
Re: torture and military impunity in Greece 2001-2005, ref: Amnesty report on Greece 2005
Dear Mr President,
I am astonished that your office has failed to answer any of the letters written on my behalf by my partner, Tim Wilson. (22 10 2005, 28 06 2005, 16 03 2005, 21 04 2005) They address my experience of being tortured and raped by men wearing the uniform of Greece in 2001. This matter has been clearly covered by the English-language weekly, "the Athens News", by "Kathimerini" and by the British magazine, "Gay Times". The issues relating to this case, of torture in Europe, have been raised in the British parliament, and questions specific to the case have been tabled in the House of Commons.
I have today asked my lawyers in the UK to respond to allegations made by Court prosecutor Michael Tsagarakis who apparently insisted that the case against the five Coastguard accused and convicted of abusing me failed because I did not give evidence in Court.
In fact, I was not informed of the case at all, and the Greek Embassy in London, which had earlier assured my partner, that it would appraise him of any developments and was kept informed by the competent (sic) authorities in Athens, absolutely denied that any trial was taking place right up to the date of the trial itself.
On the two occasions when I attempted to give evidence in Crete, I found my evidence grossly mistranslated and I was bullied into answering questions in a language I did not fully understand and no response has ever been received by us after a letter demanding an explanation from Michaelis Apostolides was sent by the Greek Helsinki Monitor on 26th June 2002. In addition, my partner and I were so threatened by thugs who attacked us on the street and visisted our house with guns in their pockets that we were advised to leave Greece. We were in no doubt that our lives were in danger. We had appealed for protection to the then Prime Minister and to Mr George Papandreou, the Foreign Minister and received no response at all.
At a time when the new penal code in Turkey condemns all forms of torture, and criminalises male rape, I do not understand, frankly why the Greek Government, already a member of the EU and often critical of Turkey's human rights' record, fails to take the issue of my torture and rape seriously at all. The matter has been before the Courts and clearly awaits political comment, yet the politicians have remained silent. Not least of all is the need for the Greek government to fully implement article 137a and to address the issue of male rape and the machismo of the Greek policeforce, Coastguard and militia. I was appalled to learn from Michael Tsagarakis, for instance, that the issues of rape and torture were never seriously considered in Court.
Maybe, as President, you can find out which evidence was placed before the court to suggest that the assault that took place in the toilet was attempted rape only, and refer to my statement to the Press, (and reported again in the Athens News 27/02/2004) made the day before I also gave a statement to the GHM in which I state: "They took me to the toilet," he says. "One coastguard took out his truncheon and beat me on my shoulders and hands. Pulling at my trousers, he tried to rape me with the truncheon. I resisted. I fell down and he kicked me to make me stand up. He continued. I was in great pain." Please also refer to my statement of 5th July 2002:
“Then, he pushed the club down on the back of my neck, indicating by that that I should bend and then with force pushed it up my rectum. The pain was excruciating and I cried out….I collapsed in pain and then he gave me another kick and left.” I hope it is clear from these statements that I never alleged anything other than actual penetration, and serious pain, sexual assault, brutality and sadism. Beside my assailant, Dandoulakis, and his henchman, there was only one witness who was not present in the Courtroom to modify this evidence in any way, and whose own testimony, also given in July 2002 absolutely supports my account. I was interested to read that former head of the Coastguard Diamandis Vassilakoudis also confirms this story though the Haniotika (16th October 2004) elsewhere bizarrely reports “In the court it was said that penetration did not occur.”
Although the convictions in October 2004 were for lesser offences than those I suffered, and the 164 other foreigners also suffered at the hands of men wearing the Greek Uniform, nevertheless, the charges were serious and the conviction clear. Please explain, therefore, your silence after repeated requests for an official apology. I understand you are chief of the Greek Militia and are therefore the appropriate man to assume responsibility for their actions. As further torture occurred last Christmas, and as this too has not yet come to proper trial, it might soon appear that there is an effective policy of torture. This is certainly the impression the recent Amnesty report suggests. Only your personal intervention will help to reassure the Greek people and the wider world that this is not in fact the case. Please let me know whether appropriate compensation has already been arranged, when a public declaration of non-recurrence will take place and when I can expect a letter expressing sympathy from the Greek militia and Government.
Yours sincerely,
NECATI ZONTUL
necati and tim