The head of the Greek Police force's internal affairs department told reporters on Friday that the injuries of the four suspects that were arrested for a double bank heist in the northern city of Kozani last week, and who are suspected of being part of a terrorist organization, were not tortured as some claim during their arrest.
At a noon press conference, the commander of Internal Affairs, Panagiotis Stathis presented a video showing three of the four young men sitting on the ground. Their faces apparently bearing injuries despite being partially obscured by hoods, and an an armed policeman standing in the foreground. The injuries, he explained, occurred during a physical struggle between officers and the four robbers.
According to the commander of Internal Affairs, three of the four detainees resisted arrest. The fourth suspect was arrested without any resistance and therefore had no injuries. At the same time, added Mr. Stathis, the 20 year old was transferred to the General Hospital of Veria, where he was examined by doctors and his "status is described in a detailed medical report."
According to evidence and oral testimony, he said that it is clear that there was a scuffle, and/or fight that took place while the police attempted to detain the suspects and free the kidnapped hostage.
"The existence of physical fighting between the suspects and the police was evident when the vehicle was intercepted on Tryphonos Street in Veria according to eyewitness testimonies." The same eye witness accounts, he added, also claim that the perpetrators put up resistance while authorities attempted to arrest them. "Drop to the ground and rolling" was also reported.
The hostage, emphasized Mr.Stathis, who experienced the whole incident first hand, still does not know how the four men were removed from the getaway van. This is partly due to his emotional stress, and shock from everything he experienced, nonetheless, his testimony has been viewed as being credible, he added.
Mr. Stathis then noted several eye witness accounts from several police officers from the Imathia Police Department, who were not directly involved in the arrest operation, but were present when the four men arrived at the police headquarters right after being arrested. He said all these police officers noted that the suspects already had bruises and wounds, while there were traces of blood on their faces as well.
This more or less debunks the story that they were tortured after being detained. Stathis backed this up by noting that the policemen involved in the arrest operation were more muscle-bound than the suspects.
But almost immediately after the press conference, reports began to slam the internal affairs report. Last week the photographs prompted an outcry by specific media organizations and especially leftist groups.
What the world, and the press, ignores altogether is that these young men are suspected of being part of a terrorist organization titled "Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire". Also, there are more and more reports claiming that they could be the perpetrators being the recent bomb blast at "The Mall" shopping center in Maroussi in January.
Also, during the time of their arrest they were carrying automatic machine guns, and were holding an innocent man as a hostage! If they got hurt during the arrest operation common sense states that it is because they were resisting arrest!
We have had it up to here with certain media outlets who clearly defend terrorism by not calling it for what it is. Certain political parties do this as well. Setting up two bank robberies, holding innocent people at gunpoint, setting off explosions, fires, etc., and generally putting peoples lives at risk have nothing to do with resistance and with a desire to change the world. If we want to march forward as a society, then we have to denounce such criminal acts and point the finger at all of those voices who choose to enforce their ideologies on us at gunpoint and who want us to be divided as a society. In our opinion, these young men did the crime... And its now time to do the time!
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