Anarchism in Greece

An Athens prosecutor has brought charges against 28 suspects who were arrested on Sunday following clashes in the downtown Athens district of Exarchia between self-styled anarchists and riot police.

Heavy police presence in Athens has prevented an escalation of clashes with anarchists and other extreme leftists marking the 46th anniversary of a student uprising against the then-ruling Greek military dictatorship.

Over 20,000 people made the traditional march from the National Technical University of Athens, site of the 1973 uprising, to the US Embassy on Sunday.

The Supreme Court prosecutor's office has decided to review the release in summer of Epaminondas Korkoneas, a police special guard convicted for the deadly shooting in December 2008 of teenager Alexis Grigoropoulos in the downtown Athens district of Exarchia, it emerged on Monday.

Greek police say they detained a total of 34 people in dawn raids on two squats in Athens mostly occupied by refugees and migrants, as part of a crackdown on lawlessness in the area by the new conservative government.

Dozens of officers cleared two sites in the Exarchia neighborhood of the capital.

Greek police have arrested a total of 31 people in dawn raids on squats in Athens mostly occupied by refugees and migrants, as part of a cleanup drive by the new conservative government.
Dozens of officers cleared two sites in the Exarchia neighborhood of the capital.
The migrants boarded buses to be transferred elsewhere.

Students clashed with police in central Athens on Friday during a protest against reforms to the higher education system by the country's conservative government.
Riot police fired tear gas to disperse protesters when they tried to break a police cordon barring access to the Parliament building.

People familiar with the neighbourhood see a plot to drive out residents and gentrify Exarcheia in the interests of foreign investors and big real estate firms, which, they say, are buying up properties at prices kept low by politicians perpetually linking the district with drug-dealing and petty crime.

Police officers launched a manhunt on Monday evening to locate a man who escaped from the Exarcheia police station in central Athens, where he was being held.

The 39-year-old escapee, identified as a Greek national, had three robbery convictions.

According to information, the suspect asked to go to the toilet and, while being taken, pushed the officer aside and fled. 

The police on Monday raided an occupied building in the downtown Athens neighborhood of Exarchia, removing dozens of undocumented migrants from the premises. 

The building, on the coroner of Oktavriou Merlie and Prassa Street was once a school and had been under occupation for four years. 

Around 1,000 protesters marched in downtown Athens on Saturday in a rally organized by several anti-establishment groups protesting the evacuation last month of three squats in the central district of Exarchia that had been home to dozens of refugees and migrants, including families with small children.