Egyptian fisherman: We were attacked because we are Muslims and dark-skinned

An Egyptian national, who was among the victims of an attack in June, 2012, in Perama, near Piraeus, by Golden Dawn members said on Friday, at the ongoing trial of the extreme right group, that they were singled out because they were Muslims and dark-skinned.

Ahmed Abu Hamad, an owner of a fish shop in Perama and the fourth Egyptian to testify at the trial, said that some 15 people dressed in black appeared at the house where he, his brothers and a friend were staying, and claimed that they were assaulted because “we are Muslims, dark-skinned and they want us out of the country.”

Hamad, who had earlier identified two of the assailants, told the court on Friday that he was 100 percent certain they were the men he saw from the window of his house on the night of the attack.

“I saw them face to face. They were so close, it was like reading a book,” he said, adding that after the attack he received an anonymous phone call from a man urging him to meet so that he could offer him money as compensation.