Thessaloniki, Greece - Thessaloniki 4 trial, update day #1

fromthegreekstreets

Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Thessaloniki 4 trial update day #1
by some attendants in solidarity
What follows is the first in a series of updates that will cover the Court of Appeals of our four comrades in Thessaloniki, day by day. Background information at http://www.salonikisolidarity.org.uk/
Friday 14 January 2011, 9am, Thessaloniki Courthouse.
The legal team of the defendants succeeded in its application to change one of the panel of three judges (a former state prosecutor) for another, less-biased one. Also, a fair number of the police witnesses (5-6 of the originally about 40 in number) asked to be excused because they knew nothing of the case.
The first prosecution witness was Police Officer Stamatis, the arresting officer of Simon Chapman. Simon’s lawyer, Christos Bakellas, set about demolishing the police witness testimony.
The next two prosecution witnesses (policemen) almost admitted the fact that they planted evidence against the arrested protesters. Neither police witness could say if forensic examination ever took place. These two officers were credible in that they didn’t know anything of our comrades’ arrests and could only say that they stuffed various molotovs and weapons in any available backpack to hand. Point being: any evidence found in a backpack is compromised.
The first day of the trial adjourned around 3.30pm Greek time (GMT+2).