Acropolis protesters deserve praise not handcuffs, says lawyer
A lawyer representing the student activists detained on the Acropolis for protesting against the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics said on Monday they “deserve praise instead of arrests and handcuffs.”
On Sunday, three students were arrested for displaying banners against the upcoming Beijing Games and for human rights in Tibet and Hong Kong.
The two women who climbed up scaffolding and unfolded a Tibetan flag and a banner proclaiming “Free Hong Kong Revolution,” 18-year-old Tibetan student Tsela Zoksang and 22-year-old Hong Kong exiled-activist, Joey Siu, both American citizens, are members of the ‘No Beijing 2022’ campaign. They, and a third person who accompanied them to the site, were detained by police.
All three were released after being brought before a prosecutor, who ordered a trial on January 26, 2022.
Lawyer Alexis Anagnostakis said the students’ action was “an act of raising awareness and informing the world public about the crimes of occupation and violation of human rights in Tibet and elsewhere,” he said.
“The students chose the Acropolis as a symbol of democracy and the cradle of Western civilization. The place from where the late Manolis Glezos lowered the flag of Nazism during the dark years of the Nazi occupation and has since become a national symbol. From the Acropolis, the students symbolically defended democracy and the freedom of the people,” he added.
