Title photo: tovima.gr
The issue related to the continued detention of Kostas Sakas, who is accused of involvement in the terrorist group, "Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei", is giving rise to more violent reactions. Today, the judicial council postponed again the consideration of his request to be released after a 31-month stay in custody without being brought to court. The legal deadline for the measure is 18 months.
Dozens of academics, artists, lawyers, journalists, doctors, teachers, retirees and former prisoners have declared their support for Sakas. They expressed their position more actively today, stating that they will begin a hunger strike if there is no judgment by Monday. Kostas Sakas himself has also been on hunger strike for 37 days already and is currently guarded in the hospital in the suburb of Nikea in Athens.
At the same time, according to eyewitnesses, there was tension in the pedestrian street in front of the Acropolis Museum after policemen from the riot forces attacked a group of protesters who were handing out leaflets and shouting slogans in support of Sakas.
According to police sources, around 100-150 people went out of the underground station near the Acropolis and held a procession along Dionisiou Areopagitou pedestrian street, shouting slogans and spraying on the walls messages of solidarity with the prisoner.
When the group arrived at the Acropolis Museum, the police stopped the demonstrators which led to disputes and to the detention of 10 people to undergo a police check. According to the police, the protesters had intended to move to the archaeological site and hang a protest banner on it.
The protests were provoked by the decision of the judicial council to extend the detention of Kostas Sakas by another six months. He rejects the accusation of being a member of "Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei" but does not deny that he is an anarchist.
From the beginning of the hunger strike to today, his health has declined. He has lost 37 kg and the risk of a heart attack or irreversible damage to vital organs is high.
In connection with the request for the release of Kostas Sakas, anarchists occupied the building of the regional government of Crete in Heraklion. The Faculty of Arts of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki was under occupation as well.
Nikos Houndis, Member of European Parliament of SYRIZA has submitted the matter to the attention of the European Commission and requested its immediate intervention "to stop the arrest of the accused, whose health and life are at risk as a result of the hunger strike, which he began on 4 June 2013."
PASOK and Democratic Left also reacted negatively to the extension of Sakas’ custody by six months.
Members of the non-governmental organization Doctors of the World tried to visit Kostas Sakas in hospital on Monday but the police officer on duty did not allow them to see him. Two protest meetings in his support took place outside the hospital at the end of last week.