Katerina Gkoulioni found dead on board during the transfer from prison to prison Eleonas Thebes Crete.The causes of death remain unresolved. Two months before the tragic ending, the woman sent a letter to the Ombudsman. This letter was for the woman, aged forty one years, the sole prop.
In this letter Katerina Gkoulioni describes an incredible clarity and realism that one hardly stand it, the almost daily torture by the guards, doctors and general managers of the prison. The text of this letter is creepy. It refers to that worst record in the history of prisons. The methodology and the systematic torture, the carefully planned attack on the personality of the almost daily rape by the guards on the pretext of «research» to find a quantity of drugs, the barbaric and brutal «admission» vaginal in the country, which accompanied by comments sex, forced to afodefei and tails in the sight of the jailer, these refer to an orderly torture that violate the laws of the State, the rules of the prison system, human rights. Reminiscent Ntachaou and Auschwitz. All this, however, occur in 2009 in the prisons of this country.
Katerina Gkoulioni found dead in the transfer, but the authorities did not even have to publish the final findings to explain death. It is also unknown whether the Ombudsman responded or if it intends to respond to the letter received from the desperate food on 2 February 2009. Since two months have rolled and the women in prison Eleonas of Thebes still raped and humiliate daily.
Monday 23 March 2009
She lost her life denouncing the prison system
Sunday 26 October 2008
Luca Zanotti free on bail
The young man is accused of international trafficking in drugs, he risks 10 years for 21 grams of hashish. Now he will return to Italy paying a bail of 10,000 euros. The trial has been postponed to December 16, due to a strike.
The young boy from Rimini, accused by Greece of international trafficking in drugs, Luca Zanotti, will return to freedom after paying a bail of 10,000 euros. This was decided today by the greek judge of the court in Kalamata, in southern Peloponnese. The judge has updated the process to Dec. 16, due to a strike of the clerks of the court. Zanotti will go back to Italy.
An error made three years ago, that modest amount of 'ashish', 21 grams, became "international drug trafficking" for the bulimia of judicial mechanisms. This absurd and disproportionate accusation, month after month grew up to become a case that probably will force the parliament to rethink, critically, the blind adhesion to the conventions of Europe considered as a single nation. This case shows the exact opposite. And the nightmare of Luca Zanotti, who will return before the court in Kalamata on December 16 has threatened to magnify over whether its lawyers and Zaina Assimakis had not done their job well and especially if the presiding judge Dritsakou, a woman , had not used female common sense, with even motherly nuances.
Friday 19 September 2008
Luca Zanotti extradited to Greece
Article in Il Corriere della Sera
The father: "When he left he was serene"
Luca Zanotti extradited to Greece
They risk 10 years for 21 grams of hashish
The young man was surprised with his friend in possession of drugs. It is accused of international trafficking.
ATHENS - Luca Zanotti was extradited. The young man was arrested on Tuesday morning to be delivered to the Greek authorities, as decided by the Cassation. The Italian Supreme Court has allowed the greek government to hold Luca until the trial.
IN PRISON - At the trial Zanotti risks to be sentenced up to 10 years in prison. The twenty years old boy from Rimini, who should be conducted in jail in the town of Kalamata, is accused of 'international trafficking, possession and trafficking of drugs', for being surprised with the friend, David D'Orsi, with 21 grams of hashish, which they brought with them into the Peloponnese, in 2005.
THE PROCESS - The father of Luca, Paolo Zanotti, plans to fly to Greece to help his son, to stay by his side as he has done in the recent months. Maybe already next Saturday: "When he left - says the parent from the Police Station - Luca was serene." The lawyers seem optimistic about the timing of the process: "It seems that we can anticipate it. It could be held within one month."
Friday 12 September 2008
Article from Eleftherotypia newspaper about the Citizens League for Human Rights
Hell sentences for addicts
THEY BURRY THEM IN PRISONS, WHILE THEIR FAMILIES PAY THE SUSPENSION SYSTEM
By IOANNA SOTIRCHOU
"Just like we had witches being burnt in the Middle Age, the same happens today with the kids with drug problems. They are the hounded out of society" George Koskinias is telling us on behalf of the Citizens League for Human Rights, which was set two or three years ago mainly by parents who met each other in the trials of their kids for drug cases, listened to the crushing sentences and decided to do something.
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Their compass is the Framework Decision of the European Council (2004/757/JAI-25/10/2004) which brings up, in their opinion, significant changes in the criminal treatment, setting the maximum penalties for possession of drugs depending on the quantity: up to three years for small quantities and up to ten for large. The exact wording is that «Maximum penalties must be at least between 5 and 10 years of deprivation», term that leaves open the possibility for larger prescribed penalties, as our lawyers have indicated.
The CLHR (contact number 6976 835645, more details at http://ctzleague.blogspot.com) intends to appeal to the European Commission for the dealy in implementing these measures. It is a dealy that "has destroyed thousands of lives of young people and has led to thousands of desperate families. Our common common realisation, mainly after the parajudicial network scandal in Greece, was that the tightening in inhumane degreees of the penalties imposed by the courts. It is not logical that in other countries for 5-10 grams for someone to just listen to a reprimand or pay a fee and here to take ten years in prison. This cannot continue. Until now, the the League has collected hundreds of prisoners' proxies for a mass appeal to the European Court and we're trying to collect more", says the father, who speaks under a nick name (his identity details are available to Eleftherotypia), because his student son, who is already for three years in prison, has his Court of Appeal in a few days: "He was found with a total of 12 grams of unprocessed cannabis and was sentenced for more than ten years in prison, and other people are serving the same years for 30 grams".
He narrates his Odyssey, common with that of other parents, who came up to the highest levels of the judiciary to urge lenient treatment: "Everyone ignores us and our demands. We are told that things will become better at the Court of Appeal. There, you usually cut one to two years from the more than ten years penalty that are children are required to serve. We are talking about children of 18, 20, 22 years old, who see their lives be lost in prison. This is great injustice, the machinery of injustice".
They earn money.
What engine of injustice? His talk, like a river: "It's everyone who earns money and lives at the expense of prisoners for drugs and their hope for release. Those who support the zero tolerance, filling the prisons and building new ones constantly. The system of justice, judges, lawyers, all these take advantage of the parent. I, only until the Court of Appeal, have spent more than 25,000 euros. And I'm not talking about greases: through all the years that my kid is in prison we requested 9 times a prison release, which costs 2,000 - 3,000 euros at a time. In the recent years, nearly 400 prisoners have died in greek prisons, mainly by drugs. This is a genocide. If you have a conviction for drugs you are obliged to serve the 4/5 of your sentence, contrary to the 3/5 other prisoners have to. Why such racism among prisoners? According to the police the years 2000 - 2007 12,000 people were convicted for drug cases. Nearly one in a thousand Greeks, within seven years. Consider the turnover of money paid for litigation costs, fees, greases."
"Tragic things"
'What is the court practice?' we asked the lawyer Emmanuel Papadakis: "In our country the statutory penalties are devastating, there are no distinctions, and if someone with drugs gets characterized as 'particularly dangerous' he is finished in the people waste dump. Tragic things happen. We have sick people who take life sentences, while they should receive treatments. There is no distinction of what is a big or small quantity, they do not recognise extenuating circumstances, neither if you are of young age and only occassional user who can be released, the judicial practice in Greece is to characterise everyone as a drug dealer, the life sentences for drug cases have become an every day phenomenon, the law doesn't distinguish between the substances, if you get caught with hard drugs the penalties are crushing, while as 'users' are only characterized the people who have access to the parajudicial circuits. These are not elements of a civilized nation", he says.
ELEFTHEROTYPIA - 06/09/2008
It's a real shame for Greece, what happens so close to us, yet very few see. Greece is considered to be a country of Western and Central Europe with the highest number of detainees in relation to its population. Along with Albania and Turkey they are the countries who impose the heaviest penalties.
It's positive though that the non-application of the european framework concering drugs and the selective justice of the Courts is receiving more publicity in the media.
Greece pretends not to notice
Source
http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l14153.htm
| The purpose of this Framework Decision is to combat drug trafficking so as to limit the supply and consumption of drugs. It lays down minimum rules to be observed by the Member States. The text begins with a list of punishable acts relating to drug trafficking. It obliges Member States to take measures against natural persons involved in such trafficking. Finally, it lays down minimum penalties. |
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ACT
Council Framework Decision 2004/757/JAI of 25 October 2004 laying down minimum provisions on the constituent elements of criminal acts and penalties in the field of illicit drug trafficking.
SUMMARY
This Framework Decision lays down minimum provisions on criminal acts and the penalties applicable to drug trafficking. To comply with it, the Member States must adopt measures by 12 May 2006.
Offences
The Framework Decision stipulates that each Member State must take the necessary measures to sanction all intentional behaviour relating to the trafficking of drugs and precursors.
The document states that "drugs" means any substances covered by the 1961 UN Convention on Narcotic Drugs or the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances or substances subject to controls under Joint Action 97/396/JHA. Precursors are substances used to produce legal products such as medicines, but which can also be used to produce illicit drugs. They are classified in Community law on the basis of Article 12 of the 1988 United Nations Convention.
Acts linked to drug trafficking include production, manufacture, extraction, sale, transport, importation and exportation. Possession and purchase with a view to engaging in activities linked with drug trafficking are also taken into account, as are the manufacture, transport and distribution of precursors. Incitement to drug trafficking, aiding and abetting such activity and attempting to traffic in drugs are regarded as offences.
This Framework Decision does not, however, cover activities carried out with a view to personal consumption.
Liability of legal persons
This Framework Decision specifies that the Member States must take measures to ensure that legal persons can be held to account for offences linked with trafficking in drugs and precursors, as well as for aiding and abetting, inciting or attempting such activity.
The concept of legal persons as used here does not include states and public bodies in the exercise of their powers or public international organisations.
An organisation is liable if the offence is committed by an individual who has a leading position within that organisation. It is also held responsible for shortcomings in supervision or control.
But the Decision states that the liability of legal persons does not exclude criminal proceedings against natural persons.
Sanctions
The Framework Decision requires the Member States to take the necessary measures to ensure that offences are subject to effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties.
It emphasizes that, where an offence has been committed in whole or in part within a Member State's territory, that Member State must take measures if the offender is one of its nationals or if the offence was committed for the benefit of a legal person established within its territory.
The maximum penalties for minor offences must be at least between one and three years' imprisonment. The Member States must also take the necessary measures to confiscate substances used to commit offences.
Maximum penalties must be at least between 5 and 10 years of deprivation of liberty in cases where:
- the offence involves large quantities of drugs;
- it involves those drugs that are most harmful to health;
- it is committed within the framework of a criminal organisation.
However, penalties may be reduced if the offender renounces his illegal activities and provides information to the administrative or legal authorities which helps to identify other offenders.
Sanctions for legal persons must include fines for criminal or non-criminal offences. Other sanctions may also be imposed, including placing the establishment under judicial supervision or closing it temporarily or permanently.
Background
This Framework Decision follows up the conclusions of the 1999 Tampere European Council, which called on the Member States to adopt additional legal provisions to combat trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. The EU's anti-drugs plan (2000-2004) also called explicitly on the Commission to propose measures to introduce minimum provisions on the constituent elements of criminal acts and penalties on drug trafficking.
REFERENCES
| Act | Entry into force | Deadline for transposition in the Member States | Official Journal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Framework decision 2004/757/JHA [adoption: consultation CNS/2001/0114 ] | 12.11.2004 | 12.05.2006 | OJ L 335 of 11.11.04 |
RELATED ACTS
Commission Communication of 26 May 1999 to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions concerning a European Union action plan on the fight against drugs (2000-2004) [COM(1999) 239 final - Not published in the Official Journal]
Last updated: 28.02.2005