Gov't Slams FYROM Report Of "Samardziev" Beating By Golden Dawn Calls It Hoax

The Greek government strenuously denied reports appearing in the media of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) that an individual named Aleksandar Samardziev with ethnic ties to FYROM had been beaten to death by members of far-right Golden Dawn in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki. Foreign ministry spokesman Grigoris Delavekouras dismissed the reports as a hoax "invented by a diseased imagination". Delavekouras underlined that such an incident never occurred. "We call on the FYROM government to be more careful and not allow room for cultivating artificial tension and nationalism."

In Skopje, FYROM spokesman Aleksandar Georgiev, admitted that there was no official confirmation of the report and the majority of the media later ran stories admitting that the story was most likely a hoax.

The fake story, which was reproduced by the majority of FYROM media late last Friday and on Saturday alleged that the victim Samardziev had been the victim of a beating by Golden Dawn and had died of his injuries in hospital. It was originally picked up from a social networking site, from a post made by the alleged victim's cousin and then "confirmed" by a spokesman for a marginal nationalist organisation in FYROM.