Burundi-born ex-police officer seeks to be Greece’s first black lawmaker

In working-class neighborhoods on the outskirts of Athens, Spiros Richard Hagabimana is going door-to-door in an election campaign that could see him become Greece's first black lawmaker.

It is a remarkable journey for Hagabimana, who just eight years ago was jailed in his native Burundi for refusing to open fire on anti-government protesters as a high-ranking officer of the national police.

It would also be a historic win in a country where migrants rarely hold official posts and where, less than a decade ago, the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party was the third-most popular political force on a fiercely anti-immigrant agenda.

Dressed in a suit and tie, Hagabimana walks the streets of the constituency he is contesting in Greece's May 21 election, meeting voters in farmers' markets and cafés.

"I have an opinion about racism," Hagabimana, 54, now a senior...