In March 2023, complaints and audiovisual material were published regarding multiple incidents of excessive police violence and the use of chemicals against demonstrators and media workers during rallies for the Tempe railway accident in Athens and Thessaloniki on March 5, 2023 (indicatively: 1, 2, 3, 4).
On March 6, 2023, a legal association published a detailed complaint regarding a “violent attack” by the police forces against its members who took part in a demonstration in the centre of Athens.
A LiFO report stated that during the incidents, two photojournalists were injured, one by a stun grenade and the other by a stone thrown at his neck by a police officer, according to photojournalist Marios Lolos.
On March 7, two days after the incidents, Citizen Protection Minister Takis Theodorikakos ordered “an immediate investigation into the actions of police officers” during the protest march in Athens.
Despite the evidence and testimonies, as well as the recognition by the Ministry of Citizen Protection of the need to investigate the incidents, the official police statements of March 5 referred only to the “limited use of the necessary appropriate means”, to counter the attacks that individuals launched against them by throwing stones and Molotov cocktails.
In a state governed by the rule of law, the actions and functioning of 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 the police may use force in order to enforce the law and protect human rights, 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 legal limits is a dangerous phenomenon for a democracy.
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