On 7 December 2024, during a volleyball match in Renti between Olympiacos and Panathinaikos, outside the stadium, a person(s) fired flares directly at a police officer, resulting in serious injury (and some days later, unfortunately, the officer’s death).
A statement by police reported that more than 400 people were arrested and samples taken for the purpose of detecting gunpowder, claiming that there are strong indications that the perpetrators of the attack were among those detained.
Whilst police authorities were certainly in their right to investigate the criminal act that had taken place, the detention of such a large number of persons as well as the behaviour of the police authorities, according to complaints (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 which refer, inter alia, to incidents of violence, the lengthy detentions and the impossibility of contacting a lawyer) give rise to serious concerns.
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 the 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 performance of their duties are regulated, inter alia, by Presidential Decrees 538/1989, 141/1991 and 254/2004.
Although the police may use force to enforce the law, this does not mean that all use of preventive or repressive force by the police is lawful. On the contrary, the arbitrary use of the power to use force and police action in excess of the legal limits is a dangerous phenomenon for a democracy.
In this particular case, the behaviour of the police authorities following the serious injury of a police officer in Renti (arrests of a large number of persons, complaints of violence against those who had been arrested, inability to contact a lawyer, etc.) raises serious concerns as to whether the law was followed in practice, both for the action of the police and for the respect of the rights of persons under arrest (for whatever reason).
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