Prosecutor in Koukaki case says evidence points to misdemeanors

Commenting a day after a government minister called for tough charges against anarchists evicted from squats in Koukaki over the weekend, the head of the Athens prosecutor’s office, Evangelos Ioannidis, said that the evidence submitted to judicial officials by police justified misdemeanor charges, not felonies.

On Monday State Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis had said that squatters who hurled blocks of concrete at police officers should face felony charges as they had put people’s lives at risk.

However, Ioannidis said that only a criminal court has the authority to determine what charges can be brought against defendants.

Five of the evictees from the Matrozou Street squat that was cleared by police over the weekend faced a prosecutor Tuesday and were freed pending trial on January 23 on charges of attempted bodily harm.

The union representing Athens police officers has also called for the misdemeanor charges to be upgraded to felonies.