Thessaloniki 4 trial, update day #1

Tuesday, January 18, 2011 Occupied London

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).