Hooligans arrested over officer killing
In the largest ever operation against fan violence in the country, Attica police proceeded with a barrage of arrests on Monday of Olympiakos club hooligans for their involvement in the fatal injury of the riot policeman Giorgos Lygeridis and in at least 14 more cases. Thirty-one-year-old Lygeridis was fatally struck by a naval flare last December outside a stadium during a volleyball match in Athens.
By Monday evening, the arrests had exceeded 60 while the case file included the names of a total of 150 defendants – all organized Olympiakos fans, some described by police sources as leading members of Gate 7. They are to be charged on a case-by-case basis with incitement and complicity in the killing of the officer.
Some of them were found to have had not only a physical presence but also an organizational role in the attacks on the riot police unit outside the Melina Merkouri Stadium in Renti.
Their involvement emerged from witness statements, videos and the lifting of telephone privacy.
According to reports, police have identified five people at the top of the hierarchy. One of them is known in the ranks of organized Olympiakos fans by the name Joseph. In many videos of incidents in stadiums around Greece, he appears to participate in an organizational role with a team accreditation around his neck. He was also allegedly present during the December incident, instructing people in the stadium stands to come out and attack the police.
The second of the group of five is the 26-year-old manager of a trap singer and head of an association of organized fans.
The third is a 30-year-old who a decade ago had been sentenced to a prison term without parole for setting fire in 2012 to the barber shop of a Pakistani national, acting then on behalf of the now defunct extreme-right Golden Dawn party. The other two are known by the nicknames Shark and the Romanian.
