Citizen Protection Ministry

Citizen Protection Ministry officials are not ruling out the possibility that two military pyrotechnicians who were arrested last week for their involvement in the case of a parcel-bomb that was sent to the president of the Thessaloniki Appeals Court on February 12 may be linked to other terrorist plots, such as the attempted attack on the police riot unit headquarters in Athens last December. 

Investigators are reportedly working on the assumption that the envelope containing explosives that was sent on Monday to the Thessaloniki courthouse addressed to the president of the Court of Appeal was an attempted terrorist attack without, however, correlating the case with the recent strikes at the headquarters of the riot police in Goudi and the Ministry of Labor.

Only four of the country's 25 universities have security plans recognized by the Citizen Protection Ministry and, as recent developments have shown, even these have yet to be implemented. Plans have been drafted by the universities of Patra and Thessaloniki, along with Athens' National Technical University and University of Economics. 

Just seven months after a triumphant reelection, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis proceeded last Wednesday with "corrective moves," alarmed by opinion polls showing that public safety is citizens' second biggest concern after rising prices.

Police mourn the loss of the 31-year-old officer, Georgios Lyngeridis, who succumbed to injuries on Wednesday sustained from a naval flare during violent clashes with Olympiakos fans in the Renti area. The Citizen Protection Ministry declared a three-day mourning period. 

Hundreds of police officers and special guards held a protest rally on Monday at the Sub-Directorate for Riot Police in Goudi, Athens, after the severe injury of their 31-year-old colleague last Thursday, with a request to not be responsible for guarding sports fields.

Just over the past two months, the police's Internal Affairs Division has resolved seven cases involving corruption among its members, promping the Citizen Protection Ministry to declare it will show "zero tolerance" to those who "undermine the citizens' trust" in the police.

Illegal parking and speeding are the offenses to which Greek drivers appear most prone to this summer. Indeed, one in four inspections by the Traffic Police found an infringement, with Crete leading the way.

More than 2,000 officers have been assigned by the leadership of Greece's police force, ELAS, to prevent violence on the sidelines of several soccer games taking place in Athens over the next few days.

Professional photographers protested the planned introduction of new IDs outside the Citizen Protection Ministry Wednesday.

Citizens will be able to be photographed at police stations that issue the IDs and the photographers claim this would force many to close their shops.