Concerns in Europe: January - June 2001
37
Amnesty International September 2001
AI Index: EUR 01/003/2001
International Court of Justice
(update to AI Index: EUR 01/001/2001)
On 27 June the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in
the Hague ruled in favour of Germany against the
USA in the LaGrand Case, declaring that the USA
was in breach of its obligation under the 1963 Vienna
Convention on Consular Relations to Germany and
two German nationals by failing to inform them of
their right to seek consular assistance upon their arrest.
Two German citizens, brothers Karl and Walter
LaGrand, were convicted of committing a murder
during a robbery in Arizona in 1982 and were
executed in Florence prison, Arizona, in February and
March 1999. Germany was only informed of their
conviction in 1992 by the brothers themselves. The
ICJ also ruled with an overwhelming majority that, by
failing to take all measures at its disposal to ensure that
Walter LaGrand was not executed pending the final
decision of the ICJ in the case, the USA had breached
an Order of the Court of 3 March 1999. The USA
executed Walter LaGrand on the same day the interim
injunction was issued.
G R E E C E
The United Nations Committee against Torture
meets to consider Greece’s third period report
In May the United Nations Committee against Torture
considered Greece’s third periodic report submitted
under Article 19 of the Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment. In
its conclusions, the Committee noted that the report
was submitted with two years’ delay, and did not fully
conform with the Committee guidelines for the
preparation of state party periodic reports, by failing
to include new relevant case law, or details of
complaints regarding alleged acts of torture and other
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
The Committee expressed concern on a number of
points, including the following: “evidence that the
police sometimes use excessive or unjustifiable force
in carrying out their duties particularly when dealing
with ethnic and national minorities and foreigners”,
“the harsh conditions of detention in general and, in
particular, the long-term detention of undocumented
migrants and/or asylum-seekers awaiting deportation
in police stations without adequate facilities” and the
“severe overcrowding in prisons which aggravates the
already sub-standard material conditions”. The
Committee made several recommendations to the
Greek authorities, among them: that urgent measures
be taken to improve conditions of detention in police
stations and prisons; that measures, including training,
be taken to ensure that in the treatment of vulnerable
groups, in particular foreigners, ethnic and national
minorities, law enforcement officers do not resort to
discriminatory practices; and that steps be taken to
prevent and punish trafficking of women and other
forms of violence against women.
Constitutional changes relating to the death
penalty and conscientious objection
Under amendments to the constitution adopted in
April, the death penalty was abolished except for
“offences committed in time of war and related to it”.
(Greece has commuted death sentences to life
imprisonment since 1974.) An interpretative note was
added to the constitution, relating to clause 6 of Article
4 (dealing with the duty of Greek citizens to bear arms
in defence of their country), which states: “[This
clause] does not exclude the provision by law of the
obligation to offer other services, within or without the
armed forces (alternative service) by those who have
proven conscientious objection to performing armed
or general military service” (see also the section on
conscientious objectors, below).
New cases of alleged torture and ill-treatment
Andreas Kalamiotis, a Rom who is a Greek citizen,
alleged that on 14 June police arrested and beat him
outside his home in Pevkakia in Aghia Paraskevi, a
suburb of Athens. At the local police station police
officers allegedly racially abused him and threatened
to plant drugs on him. He was released the following
day after being accused of resisting police officers and
threatening them. He subsequently brought charges
against the police officers he alleged had ill-treated
him.
There were also reports that migrants from
Albania had been ill-treated by police in the course of
periodic “sweep operations” in which police rounded
up and expelled migrant workers lacking official
permission to reside and work in Greece. In February
a 16-year-old Albanian migrant worker, Refat Tafili,
was arrested in the Athens area during one such
operation, when police carried out a raid in the house
where he was staying. Police allegedly pushed him to
the ground and kicked him. He was later released after
losing consciousness in a police cell. Relatives
brought him to hospital where he was found to have a
ruptured spleen, and was operated on. A week later
police came to the hospital and arrested him in order
to expel him from Greece. Despite his poor health, he
was detained for five days, before being urgently re-
admitted to hospital - where he spent a further 10 days
- with an infection and internal bleeding. Following
intervention by the Ombudsperson his appeal against
expulsion
was
granted.
An
internal
police
investigation into this incident was started, but by the
end of June had not reached any conclusion.
In March a police officer on Lesbos island was
reportedly charged with torture and attacks on human
dignity after he beat and severely injured Arian Hodi,
a legal migrant worker from Albania. Arian Hodi had
previously made a complaint against a police officer
after being denied access to a shopping centre in the
town of Mytilene because of his Albanian origin.