Public Prosecutor Sotiris Bougioukos has called for the extension of pre-trial detention for Nikos Romanos and several other political detainees connected to the Ampelokipi case. The request has sparked a strong reaction from the Solidarity Committee for Romanos, who describe the move as politically motivated and lacking in legal substance.

According to the committee, Bougioukos’s submission is “effectively a copy-paste of the anti-terrorism squad’s referral documents” and seeks to keep Romanos and others behind bars for another six months. The case will be reviewed by the Council of Misdemeanours Judges on 22 April.

The committee argues that the prosecutor’s proposal reveals the overtly political nature of the case. “Blatantly disregarding even the laws of the civil state and the presumption of innocence,” they write, Bougioukos asserts that Romanos’ alleged offences were committed while he was still under conditional release – a rationale they describe as borrowed straight from the anti-terrorist department of the Greek police and the Ministry for Civil Protection.

Among the more absurd aspects of the prosecution’s argument, the committee highlights an attempt to incriminate Romanos based on the production date of the plastic bag his partial fingerprint was allegedly spotted on. “The prosecutor claims the bag was not in circulation in 2013 – only appearing more widely in 2022 – as if that somehow supports the allegations. Whether the bag was from 2008, 2013 or 2022, anyone at any time could pick up such an object,” the statement notes.

The committee also points to forensic test results – released recently from the state’s own labs –  that turned up no new incriminating evidence. Yet the prosecutor continues to argue for continued detention, ignoring the lack of new developments in the investigation since Romanos’ initial arrest.

“The presumption of innocence is being trampled on, and Romanos’s guilt is being pre-judged from the very start,” the group insists. “Because Nikos isn’t part of their system, not someone who plays nice in the polished parlours of the right’s corrupt inner circles.”

They go on to describe what they see as double standards in the justice system, pointing out that Prosecutor Bougioukos is no neutral figure.

“He’s a familiar name in high-profile cases where the state’s interests are at stake. This is the same prosecutor who initially acquitted four police officers involved in the brutal killing of Zak Kostopoulos, captured on video by countless bystanders on Gladstonos Street. The same prosecutor who conveniently downgraded charges against media personality Menios Fourthiotis – a favourite of the ruling party – to close the book on a scandal involving government ties.”

Now, the committee says, Bougioukos is once again playing the role of political enforcer. “He’s not just a prosecutor – he’s an implementer of New Democracy’s agenda, part of a machinery of repression that absolves police and child abusers when they’re aligned with the party elite (see the Lignadis case), covers up state negligence in disasters like Tempe and Pylos, and hounds dissidents using inflated charges under anti-terror law 187A.”

“The prosecutor’s recommendation fits neatly into the broader pattern of New Democracy’s ‘Law and Order’ doctrine and the two-faced nature of the justice system,” they conclude. “The upcoming decision by the judicial council will be a political one – and we must respond in kind. We must grow the movement of solidarity and resist this campaign of repression. Not one step back.”

“FREEDOM FOR ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS IN THE AMPELOKIPI CASE! TEAR DOWN THE SHABBY INDICTMENT AND ABOLISH LAW 187A!”

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