Inmate who killed guard found dead in his cell amid backdrop of growing tensions in Greek prisons – UPDATED

UPDATE – The post mortem on Ilya Kareli has shown that he died due to multiple internal injuries that had been caused by the prisoner having been hit with a rod-like object. Kareli had suffered severe bruising and rib fractures that, according to the coroner’s report, had been sustained approximately 1-2 days prior to his death. Further post-mortem toxicology tests will be conducted.

According to a statement released by the Justice Ministry, Kareli had been transferred to the Nigrita prison in Serres and held in isolation for his own safety in a cell that was continually monitored by a camera. Nigrita prison officials stated that, on his arrival to the prison, Karelia bore extensive bruises but did not tell them how he had sustained the injuries, nor did he request medical care. An investigation into the death has been launched by the police.

Meanwhile according to in.gr, the Federation of Correctional workers in a statement asserted that no prison officers had anything to do with Karelia’s death and extended condolences to his family. “We are certain that the investigation that is already underway will establish firstly what caused the death of the prisoner and under what circumstances it occurred, as well as the truth of our words, given that we didn’t contribute to it, nor did we neglect to do anything which may have endangered his life.”

END OF UPDATE

46-year-old prison guard and father of three, Giorgos Tsironis, was brutally murdered by prison inmate Ilya Kareli on Monday afternoon in Malandrino prison. According to reports, Kareli, originally from Albania and who was serving a life sentence for multiple charges including attempted homicide, was furious over being denied prison leave to visit his ailing mother.

As prisoners were returning to their cells Kareli, attacked the guard from the rear, stabbing him in the neck with an improvised knife fashioned from a part of a doorframe. Giorgos Tsironis’s carotid artery was severed in the attack and he died shortly afterwards.

According to testimony from a prison guard who rushed to his colleague’s aid, Kareli then passed him a bloodstained note which read, “It’s not enough that you have deprived me of so many years of my life. I’ve been inside since 1997. Why didn’t you let me see my mother while she is still alive and have a family of my own. Now I am forced to take a life from you.”

Yesterday afternoon Kareli was transferred to Nigrita prison in the town of Serres. However he was found dead a few hours later in his cell.

The cause of his death is still under investigation although it is currently reportedly being attributed (link in Greek) to ‘medical reasons’. According to reports the cell was monitored by cameras which showed the prisoner lying on his bed at 18.32. At 23.30 he was found not moving by prison guards who entered his cell.

According to prison workers Kareli had multiple bruises when he entered the prison and had been asked whether he was in pain but had not responded. He is also reported to have said, “bring me a rope so I can hang myself.” The coroner is currently conducting a post mortem to establish cause of death.

The case has added to tensions that are already running high over conditions inside Greek prisons.

While the Justice Ministry initially stated (link in Greek) that the murder of the prison guard was an ‘isolated incident’ and not part of a wider prisoner uprising, it occurred at a time when inmates protests are growing over squalid conditions, lack of medical care as well as proposed reforms to the prison system.

The Federation of Correctional Workers are also angry over cutbacks and the overcrowding which they say have left guards stretched thin and vulnerable. In a written statement they also accused the ministry (link in Greek) of ignoring their repeated warnings that, ‘if immediate and substantive measures were not taken then with mathematical certainty we will mourn victims.” In a response to the killings the correctional workers also stated that they would prevent all inmates from receiving visitors for a week.

Conditions in Greek prisons have already come under fire in Greece and abroad. Particularly in the hospital wing of the Korydallos prison in Athens, prisoners face overcrowding, squalid conditions and systematic abuse (link in Greek) with facilities designed for 60 people housing over 200. The number of HIV positive patients has also increased dramatically while medical treatment for those suffering from HIV and other chronic, infectious and life-threatening diseases is negligible (link in Greek). Recently the Council of Europe called for an immediate improvement to conditions in the facility and inmates have launched a hunger strike.

Meanwhile prisoners across the country are also protesting government plans for a new maximum security prison in Domokos and related legislative plans to reform the correctional system, which inmates maintain amount to the institutionalisation of human rights abuses and a ‘Greek version of Guantanamo’.

On Monday small-scale protests broke out in Korydallos, Domokos and Corfu with prisoners refusing to return to their cells. The ‘Initiative for Prisoner Rights’ has called on citizens to protest the proposed reforms. The group writes in a statement released on Wednesday (link in Greek):

“With this draft law the government seeks to: introduce the notion of revenge in sentencing, to cancel legally established rights such as the presumption of innocence and the principles of equality and proportionality, they are establishing the torture of solitary confinement as a disciplinary measure for all those who protest, they are building ‘dark’ prisons where arbitrariness and the rule of the warden will dominate, and finally they are creating a correctional model aimed at all of society.

…The recent events at the Malandrino prison demonstrate that prisons are a pot that is boiling, while at the same time with surprise raids on cells, cancellation of visitations and prison leaves the Ministry of Justice is demonstrating what exactly it means by the term ‘public consultation. We demand that the terror-bill of the Ministry of Justice which leads to the physical and mental annihilation of prisoners be withdrawn.”