Greek human rights activist accused of high treason

Panayotis Dimitras, head of the human rights organisation, Greek Helsiniki Monitor is facing possible charges of high treason and if convicted a life sentence for speaking out about minority rights in Greece.

The Athens chief presecutors office has instigated a preliminary investigation into Dimitras’s violation of article 138, paragraph 1 of the Greek criminal code which states, which states: “one who attempts by force or by threat of force to detach from the Greek State territory belonging to it or to include territory of the Greek State in another state shall be punished by death” (another article commutes death sentences to life sentences) after a complaint was received from far right nationalist and lawyer, Konstantinos Plevris in October 2007 over Dimitras’s articles on  Macedonian minorities in Greece. It should be noted that Plevris was convicted of inciting racial hatred in December 2007 over the publication of his book, his book “Jews: The Whole Truth,” which denies the Holocaust took place.

In addition, according to the World Organisation Against Torture, Thanos Plevris,  MP for the far right LAOS party and son,and political associate of Mr. Kostas Plevris, also tabled a question in April 2008, asking the Greek minister for Justice to invoke his right to ask for a criminal investigation against the Macedonian minority political party, Rainbow.
 
The case came to light during an interview with the BBC’s Macedonian service in which Dimitras talked about discussions the Greek Helsiniki monitor had had with the UN’s independent minority expert, Gay McDougall during her recent visit to Greece.

The use of such extreme legal measures illustrates the highly sensitive nature of the issue of the presence of ethnic minorites within Greece’s borders. For many Greeks, especially those on the right of the political spectrum such issues are little more than stalking horses for territorial claims by the country’s Balkan neighbours and often the country’s intellectual and political establishment has gone out of its way to attempt to disprove the  existence of such groups or to claim that they have their cultural origins in Greece.

On the other hand organisations such as the Greek Helsinki Watch have pointed out long - term failure of the Greek state to protect human rights of immigrants and minorities and the country’s unwillingness to honour its commitments to international agreements concerning the treatment of such groups. Such oversights have been criticised repeatedly by the United Nations and  European Union.