Arrested Croats deny hooligan tag
The dozens of young Croatians detained for their roles in the violent clashes on August 7 which led to the death of 29-year-old Michalis Katsouris deny they are members of the so-called Dinamo Zagreb ultras Bad Blue Boys (BBB), notorious for hooliganism, according to their testimonies to Greek judicial authorities, seen by Kathimerini.
The clashes took place outside the AEK Athens stadium on the eve of the first leg of the Champions League qualifier with Dinamo Zagreb.
“I am not a member of the BBB of Dinamo, I am just a fan,” testified a 23-year-old from Zagreb, as another 23-year-old co-defendant gave similar testimony. “I don’t know who organized the trip to Greece. I am not organized in Dynamo’s BBB and I don’t know if any of my co-defendants are,” he claimed.
The same attitude was adopted by all the detainees regarding the deadly clash. However, BBB members at the recent Dinamo vs AEK in Zagreb game earlier this week symbolically left empty seats in their stands in solidarity with their imprisoned “brothers.”
To the question from investigators as to “why were they in Greece,” the suspects claimed they traveled to the country to watch the match between Athens’ Panathinaikos and French team Marseille.
“My friends and I saw that Panathinaikos was playing and we decided to come to Greece for the match,” replied a 21-year-old Croatian. The same claim was made by a compatriot of the same age. “Initially, we came to Greece for a holiday, combined with the match we were going to watch. We were looking for tickets here in Greece,” he said.
The Croatian suspects claimed that they went to the AEK stadium in Nea Filadelfia on the evening of August 7 to cheer on the Dinamo Zagreb players ahead of the match scheduled for the following day.
