Gov’t says attack on Athens Voice offices ‘unjustifiable’

The government on Thursday condemned an attack by the Rouvikonas anarchist group on the offices of free press Athens Voice, saying such incidents have “no place in our democracy.”

Around 15 members of the anti-establishment group used crowbars to smash furniture and equipment, while also splashing black paint on the walls of the newspaper's Athens offices.

In a post on the anarchist Indymedia website, Rouvikonas said the attack was in protest at an off-color comment that appeared on the newspaper’s online edition regarding the death of Gayane Kassardjian, a 50-year-old Armenian woman working off the books as a private caregiver at the Nikaia General Hospital near Piraeus.

The woman died of injuries after jumping out of a window to evade a possible inspection of her residence and work permit.

In its announcement later, ruling SYRIZA also added that such attacks “cannot “be justified by any amount of vulgarity.”