Police raids book presentation in Athens with scores detained

The police raid on Exarcheia in the evening of Wen. 21/10 came as a total surprise. Government sources are claiming it was a result of an attack with rocks against a foot patrol in the outskirt of the area. This claim remains unverified and disputable.

The occupation army, as the locals call the riot police, entered by any possible route with menacing intentions. For reasons still unclear 50 plain-clothed policemen wearing helmets invaded Floral, a newly re-opened historical cafe of the area, where a book presentation was being held with the presence of prominent writers, journalists and the leader of the Radical Left Coalition, Mr Tsipras. The cops proceeded to arbitrarily and indiscriminately arrest customers, amongst which a well known left-wing journalist. According to eye witnesses the cops exited the building howling and posing with the victory finger-sign.

Just outside the cafe, on Exarcheia Square, the police also arrested Mr Papachristou, a symbol of the resistance to the Junta of the Colonels and the radio-voice of the Polytechnic Uprising in 1973 against the dictatorship. A State TV journalist who tried to film the arrest with his mobile phone has been also arrested.

As a first response to the unprecedented police attack, the arrest of Papachristou is estimated to be either a gross symbolic mistake on part of the Socialist, or the signal for a turn of the clock to the darkest days of greek history.