Questions of cover-up as trial of officers accused of torturing Vasilios Maggos begins

In a statement, the coalition pointed to three developments it considers alarming: the court’s rejection of the Maggos family’s request to have civil party lawyers participate in the proceedings in support of the prosecution; what it described as the systematic character assassination of Maggos by the defence lawyers before any witnesses had been called; and what it characterised as attempts by the defence to manipulate the bench through a combination of pressure and threats.

The coalition noted that the court has announced that the entire next session, scheduled for 30 April, will be devoted to procedural objections raised by the defence, with no witnesses called to testify.

The full text of the statement follows:

‘Did the trial of the police officers who tortured Vasilis Maggos continue yesterday, Tuesday 7 April? The way in which the trial process is “progressing” leaves open the question of whether this is a process of clarifying the case and opening paths to the truth, or a process that essentially aims to end the case before its examination has even begun. Whether, in short, it is a new process of cover-up.

‘What evidence supports the above conclusion?

‘1. The flagrant violation of the public’s sense of justice by rejecting the request for the presence of civil party lawyers supporting the prosecution on behalf of the Maggos family. The court essentially decided on a monologue by the defence.

‘2. The methodical character assassination of Vasilis, before the examination of witnesses had even begun, with the clear and repeated insinuation by the defence lawyers that anyone who has been a drug user is prohibited from accusing uniformed officers of torture, much less torture that sent him to his death. In the narrative of the defence, there is no victim; he was reduced to an “alleged victim”.

‘3. The clear attempt to manipulate the bench, with alternating “advice” and threats by the defence lawyers, in a framework of co-formulating the terms of the trial. Terms that reach the point where the bench announces in advance that the entire next session, on 30 April, will be dedicated to the objections of the defence and that no witnesses will even be called to begin testifying.

‘These basic elements are framed by a mixture of bullying, irony and unabashed machismo, including obscene sexism, directed by a significant portion of the trial’s “audience” consisting of police officers, both on and off duty, and clearly incited by the defence lawyers themselves.

‘In yesterday’s session, this included derogatory remarks towards Yiannis Maggos, with Mr Skalimis and the rest of the defence legal team going so far as to tell Yiannis “you won’t be speaking in here”; members of OPKE who appeared to know all the prosecution witnesses by their first names; security personnel referring to paid sympathisers; and open attempts to provoke confrontations in the corridors of the court.

‘The case of the state killing of Vasilis does not begin with the trial in Karditsa. It has been going on for six years, crushing the judicial and state cover-up procedures that surrounded it from the very beginning. It is in the courtrooms because an entire movement raised it, because through it, all the corporate and state violence experienced by all those who dare to fight against a system that oppresses, exploits and kills was reflected. From this point of view, it has already been judged socially, with the overwhelming majority having recognised the barbaric nature of his torture, which took on lethal dimensions as part of the subjugation of an entire city to the plans of the cement giant AGET-Lafarge and the burning of waste.

‘The struggling people, a people who experience injustice and the cover-up of state and government crimes every day, from Tempi to Violanda, do not demand justice from a completely discredited justice system, but demand the imposition of social justice.

‘The presence of the movement in the courts, which with endurance and self-sacrifice fights to ensure that the truth is not lost in judicial labyrinths, does not express any expectation towards the institution that contributes to the cover-up of dozens of cases or the relentless persecution of activists, but symbolises the social siege of all those who experience injustice daily.

‘History has dictated that the truth about the torture and killing of a young activist will be born through confrontation with the loyal servants of the system, in a continuous and relentless struggle for justice by those who build justice in the streets, with their struggles and their sacrifices.’

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