In January and February 2025, complaints, announcements and audiovisual material were published cataloguing incidents of excessive police violence against demonstrators and media workers during demonstrations over the Tempe train accident on 26 January 2025 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).
Mr. Marios Lolos, a photojournalist, was seriously injured by a flash grenade, as described in statements (1, 2) by the Union of Press Photographers of Greece (ΕΦΕ) and the Journalists Union of Athens Daily Newspapers (ΕΣΗΕΑ).
The attack on the photojournalist was condemned by the Foreign Press Association of Greece (FPA), as well as the Panhellenic Federation of Journalists’ Unions (Posey).
In a state governed by the rule of law, the police authorities must be governed by certain principles, including the principle of legality, the principle of proportionality, the prohibition of abuse of police power and the respect for and protection of human rights.
The powers of the police authorities and the conduct to be displayed by them in the exercise of their duties are regulated, inter alia, by Presidential Decrees 538/1989, 141/1991 and 254/2004.
Although force may be used to enforce the law and protect human rights, this does not mean that all use of preventive or repressive force by police officers is legal.
On the contrary, the arbitrary use of force in excess of legal limits is a dangerous phenomenon for a democracy. In view of the above, it should be noted that in the case in question the behaviour of the police authorities (unprovoked use of force, use of chemicals and flash grenades) appears to deviate – in a repeated and systematic manner – from the legal limits of police action.
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