Security ramped up in Athens and Thessaloniki for anniversary of teen’s 2008 murder
Downtown Athens and Thessaloniki will see central thoroughfares being shut down to traffic and public transportation upheavals on Tuesday, as part of security measures for the 14th anniversary of the police shooting of teenager Alexis Grigoropoulos.
Two separate rallies have been planned in the capital’s center, one at noon outside the Propylaia of Athens University and another at 6 p.m. on Syntagma Square outside Parliament, prompting the closure of the surrounding streets, including Panepistimiou and a part of Vassilissis Sofias and Vassilissis Amalias. The Panepistimiou Street metro station will also be closed, as will, possibly, the Syntagma Square station.
Similar protest rallies are also expected in the northern port city, where the atmosphere is particularly tense following the shooting of a 16-year-old boy by the police in the early hours of Sunday.
The teenager is in critical condition after being shot in the head during a chase by police, who were pursuing him after he allegedly drove away from a gas station without paying.
A Thessaloniki rally to protest his shooting on Monday night ended in clashes with police, while similar tension was also reported in downtown Athens’ Exarchia district, where special police guard Epaminondas Korkoneas killed Grigoropoulos on the night of December 6, 2008, following a verbal altercation with the teenager and his friends.
