Ombudsman slams police for wrongly detaining citizen

Greece’s Ombudsman has condemned the Greek Police (ELAS) over the alleged detention of a citizen who was mistakenly taken for a fugitive criminal and held for eight days. It called on Public Order Minister Vassilis Kikilias to arrange for the victim to be compensated and to take measures to ensure the same mistake does not happen again.

In a report sent to Kikilias, the independent watchdog also slammed ELAS for failing to take disciplinary action against any officials in the force for the oversight, it emerged yesterday.

The watchdog also criticized the police for neglecting to act on any of its proposals, noting that ELAS merely invoked existing legislation and said it had forwarded the report to the relevant department for scrutiny.

The Ombudsman noted that “a modern police force, when it errs, should be bold and direct” in taking remedial action.

Details about the citizen’s ordeal were not made public.