[ALBSA-Info] From Greek Helsinki Monitor - Rerun

[Agron Alibali]

GHM: Policemen Killing or Incapacitating Albanians? So What, Who Cares? One Year After the Murder of Gentjan Celniku.

GREEK HELSINKI MONITOR (GHM)
Address: P.O. Box 60820, 15304 Glyka Nera 
Telephone: (+3) 010.347.22.59. Fax: (+3) 010.601.87.60.
e-mail: office at greekhelsinki.gr website: http://www.greekhelsinki.gr
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PRESS RELEASE

21 November 2002

TOPIC: POLICEMEN KILLING OR INCAPACITATING ALBANIANS? SO WHAT, WHO CARES? ONE YEAR AFTER THE MURDER OF GENTJAN CELNIKU.

Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM), on the occasion of the one-year anniversary of Gentjan Celniku's (an Albanian citizen) murder (at 8:40 pm on 21/11/01, at Amerikis Square), notes that, with a few exceptions, the attitude of Greek police and judicial authorities towards Albanian citizens that fall victims of police actions resulting to death or paralysis, gives the impression that they are treated in a disgraceful manner, hence the partial or total cover-up of these cases. GHM reminds that the xenophobic and Albanophobic feelings among law enforcement and Cost Guard officers are so much widespread, that the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture itself was able to detect them (see yesterday's report on Greece http://www.cpt.coe.int/en/reports/inf2002-31en.htm): "Further, during conversations held with law enforcement officials in several of the establishments visited, the delegation could not fail to note the disrespectful attitude displayed by some officers when referring to detainees, particularly those of Albanian origin."

Here are some characteristic examples of unacceptable investigations and of inexistent or insufficient prosecution:

1. Gentjan Celniku (Athens, 21/11/01): The 20-year old was killed by a policeman and attempts were made ex post facto to fabricate how dangerous he was (see below); this happened as well at the border incidents presented here. The Sworn Administrative Inquiry (EDE) has yet to finish and GHM -being the organization that brought forward the allegations to the Hellenic Police (ELAS)- was never asked to testify. The investigating judge made no real inquiries and the Indictment Chamber indicted the defendant on misdemeanor only: despite the Amnesty International and International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights pleas to the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court that an appeal be lodged to secure a proper inquiry, and despite the relevant GHM petition to the Appeals Prosecutor's Office, the Appeals Prosecutor that handled the case did not lodge an appeal.

2. Afrim Salla (Greek-Albanian border, 4/6/01): The 15-year old was paralyzed from the waist down, after -as claimed by ELAS- the gun of a Border Guard went off accidentally… when he tripped over while firing warning shots against unarmed Albanians trying to enter Greece... "From a criminal and disciplinary respect, the case is archived", as stated cynically in a Ministry of Public Order document, which is at GHM's disposal. 

3. Bledar Qosku (Greek-Albanian border, 1/11/00): The 23-year old was killed by a Border Guard after fire exchange, as claimed by ELAS. The gun he was supposed to be carrying was never found, while the other Albanians with him at the time, claimed under oath that they were ill-treated during their custody in order to testify that the victim was armed. Albanian judicial authorities started a prosecution, while the Ministry of Public Order informs rather stereotypically that "the case was archived from both a legal and a disciplinary respect". In addition, the Public Prosecutor's Office in Florina refused to submit the evidence requested by the Public Prosecutor's Office in Tirana …

4. The most recent incident is the fatal injury of the 32-year old AK, son of D. The perpetrator is a Border Guard and the incident took place around 23:30 on 2/11/02, at the Messopotamia area of Kastoria. Following the exchange of correspondence and phone calls with ELAS and the Public Prosecutor in Kastoria, GHM was informed that a Sworn Administrative Inquiry had only been ordered on 12/11, and not right away, while the file on the fatal injury had not reached the Public Prosecutor by 14/11. Evidently, in this case as in so many other border incidents, the person responsible was not arrested nor taken before the Public Prosecutor immediately, as it tends to happen in Athens for similar cases that receive media coverage. On the contrary, ELAS in Kastoria, informed GHM on 8/11/02 that the report on the alleged offences committed by the three remaining Albanians, had already been sent to the Public Prosecutor's Office; in turn, the Public Prosecutor's Office had ordered their prosecution and detention, and had referred their case to a regular examining judge, while the accused had already been transferred to Ioannina Prison. Furthermore, on the same day of 8/11/02, the forensic medical examination report had not been delivered to ELAS, even though it may be presumed that the examination was carried out on 3/11/02. Let it be noted that a local television station in Kozani reported a completely different version of the events, obviously based on police sources: the four Albanians were not on foot, as stated officially by ELAS, but were passengers in a car; a chase and use of firearms took place to immobilize the car. This contradiction is another reason why a complete and independent investigation of the incident is necessary rather than letting it follow the beaten track of presenting the fatal or paralyzing injury of Albanians as lawful self-defense cases.

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THE CELNIKU MURDER CASE: 
CONDITIONS DURING ON-SITE EXAMINATION AND INVESTIGATION


1. An eyewitness describes:

The well known ex-deputy governor of IKA (Social Security Fund), Antonis Karras, in statements to the media (Mega Channel 23/11 and Avgi 24/1 -the latter is attached herein) and GHM, claimed he witnessed the "planting" of the knife, so as to make it look as if it was dropped from the hands of the deceased. The relevant article that appeared in Avgi follows. 

Avgi

24-11-01

Staged scene after the Murder... 

By: Nikos Papadimitriou 
http://193.218.80.70/cgi-bin/hwebpressrem.exe?-A=271715&-w=&-V=hpress_int&-P
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The testimony of Antonis Karras reverses totally the claims made by the accused policeman Ioannis Rizopoulos and the police authorities. Karras was at the crime scene minutes after the murder took place. Antonis Karras, who gave evidence yesterday before the investigating judge, tells our newspaper all he saw: firstly, the knife which was supposedly used in the attack by the Albanian Gentjan Celniku, was found by a policemen in the pocket of the deceased; secondly, colleagues of the accused placed it later on the ground (with the obvious intention to be found by the Crime Scene Investigation unit). 

Antonis Karras, who was a member of the PASOK Central Committee and now heads the support committee for the hunger strikers in Turkey, choosing to be a simple "citizen" - in his own words -, explains what he saw exactly a couple of evenings ago at Lefkosia Street. He happened to pass by when he saw a law enforcement officer kicking (not very hard) Celniku's friends who were tied up with their arms behind their backs; he also heard him using insulting swear words. At this sight, he reacted immediately, along with another police officer. 

At their side, the 20-year old Albanian was lying dead, in a pool of blood and brain tissue. The bullet cartridge was lying twenty-five centimeters away; Karras picked it up, placed it in a packet of cigarettes and handed it over to the policemen. (It is also noted that from a first look of the wound, he got the impression that the Albanian was shot at close range). 
He states, "They searched him in my presence and they took a knife out from either his back pocket or some pocket on his belt" and, adding rather to the point, "someone who died instantly could not have the time to put it back in his pocket...". Further on, when we asked Karras to give a description of the knife (which was described by the police as… a serrated knife) he said that is was a "common, very ordinary knife, the kind of knifes you find anywhere". 

The most amazing thing, though, is yet to follow: Antonis Karras saw the policemen handing the knife over to the police officer in command who was at the time at a nearby establishment. However, the knife was found afterwards on the curb, where the deceased was lying a little bit earlier - as Karras and the stretcher-bearers were taking the dead young man in the ambulance. The Crime Scene Investigation unit arrived a few minutes later. 

Nikos PAPADIMITRIOU


2. The investigation conditions

The depositions taken by one of the investigating police officers the night of the murder (M., usually with his colleague K.) give a completely different picture than that arising from the depositions taken by the others. In the case of the Albanian patron P. L., the depositions are diametrically opposite. Thus, in the supplementary deposition he gave to M.-K., the unknown (in the first deposition) to him Albanian, who is also the victim, becomes the Albanian whom the witness' son had gone to meet in order to reach an agreement with him, thus an Albanian familiar to him (in the second deposition). It is estimated that the father gave the second testimony at the time when the son was being questioned by those two investigating police officers, saying (only him from all the witnesses) that he had seen the victim brandishing a knife… These are the same two police officers that went on the spot to carry out the on site inspection, thus giving rise to the impression that they organized the cover-up. They were the ones to find on the same night a "convenient" Albanian (M. D.) to give a testimony about how dangerous Celniku was, though he had not been an eye witness…The versions of the meeting of the 5 Albanians differ substantially between each other, depending on the investigating officer who took the depositions as well. One of these Albanians (B. S.) actually designates another individual as the fifth member of the group (that is G. instead of M.).

The crucial deposition is that of the police officer in command of the operation, in which it is stated clearly that Rizopoulos "ignored my explicit orders not to take part in the operation" and that "I reprimanded him for touching the knife with bare hands" that he (Rizopoulos that is!!!) supposedly found on the victim. Later on, the police officer in command placed it "on the Albanian's body, where Rizopoulos indicated that he had found it". Therefore, it could be doubted whether a knife even existed, since it has the fingerprints of the perpetrator police officer who needed to claim self-defense. Another eyewitness though, Antonis Karras (ex deputy governor of IKA), claims that Rizopoulos was ordered by another police officer to search the victim. 

With respect to the attempted cover-up of the policemen, it is generally noted that, in the first phase, the version made known to the public was the one that the police officers made up on the spot and distributed to the media on that same night, namely that the victim drew a knife. This is shown by the following day's press coverage of the event. The same version was repeated by Giannis Makris, the Chairman of the Panhellenic Police Officers' Federation Board, 36 hours after the murder (23/11/01) on Mega [TV channel]. He also added that, supposedly, the police knew that Celniku was "wanted for manslaughter in Albania", something that no one mentioned during the inquiry, except only one Albanian, and which was not substantiated later as it could be, by asking for his criminal record certificate. On the contrary, during the investigation, a second version came up, a supposed kicking of the policeman by the victim (a right lateral kick by someone who had previously fallen down, as if he was a master in oriental martial arts…) that supposedly caused the firing of the gun. 

Moreover, AFTER the murder, the police disclosed a previous incident (on 9/11/01) in which Celniku allegedly wounded 2 Albanians, according to the depositions that the relatives of the two victims gave on the night of 21/11/01 AFTER the murder and, what's more, at the Kolonos police station, while they reside near Amerikis Square that has its own police station. The aim of all this was apparently to support the suspicions against Celniku and his alleged dangerous character that made him a suspect etc. Soon after that, at the dawn of the 22/11, the victims of the first incident testified as well, since the police took them to the police station in the very early hours of that day in order, as one of them has stated, to testify who hit him on the 9/11 "so as to clear the Amerikis Square area from the 'Chinese' man's gang." 

Finally, it has not yet been clarified what exactly are the "two contusion injuries" for which the accused is asked to answer; according to the indictment brought in and the investigator's proposal, there were " ... two injuries in the scalp area, one in the posterior region of the auricle(NOTE: behind the ear) and one in the parieto-occipital area (NOTE: i.e. near the top of the skull)". However:
· There was only one shot (deposition under oath of all witnesses, testimony of the accused etc).
· The entrance point of the shot was in the "right mastoid area" (NOTE: in the posterior region of the auricle, see the Autopsy Report).
· The injury was blind, i.e. the bullet did not exit the skull but it is "…embedded in the inner region of the left temporamandibular joint" (Autopsy Report)
How did this second "contusion injury in the scalp area" occur, as mentioned in the body collection document of IKA 7th Hospital, in the Investigation and Evidence Seized Report, in the preliminary investigation report of the police lieutenant? Can it possibly be that there was a second shot or that, maybe, before the fatal shot there was a fight between the accused and the victim or some blow on the victim's skull by the accused and that the fatal shot occurred after the victim had taken the blow on the skull and had dropped from his chair (testimony of police lieutenant Â.: " … RIZOPOULOS was holding the gun in the right hand without aiming at the Albanian, raising his hand; he gave me the impression that he was going to try and hit him on the neck with the grip of the gun, in an effort to prevent the Albanian's intentions towards us that looked extremely suspicious and dangerous…")? In which case, the existence of intention is self-evident and there is a general effort to cover up the actions of the accused by his fellow police officers. 

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Internet Addresses: Balkan Human Rights Web Pages: http://www.greekhelsinki.gr
The Balkan Human Rights List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/balkanhr
The Greek Human Rights List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/greekhr
Center of Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe - Southeast Europe: http://www.cedime.net
GHM Board: Panayote Dimitras, Orestis Georgiadis, Dimitrina Petrova, Alan Phillips, Gregory Vallianatos. 
International Advisory Committee: Savvas Agouridis, Teuta Arifi, Ivo Banac, Vladimir Bilandzic, Marcel Courthiade, Loring Danforth, Fernand de Varennes, Victor-Yves Ghebali, Henri Giordan, Krassimir Kanev, Will Kymlicka, Magda Opalski, Theodore S. Orlin, Dimitrina Petrova, Alan Phillips, Aaron Rhodes, Vladimir Solonari, Patrick Thornberry, Stefan Troebst, Boris Tsilevich, Tibor Varady, Marc Weller. 
Affiliation to International Organizations: Consortium of Minority Resources (COMIR), Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN), European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF), Minority Rights Group International (MRGI), One World Net, South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), World Organization Against Torture (OMCT). 



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