Athens, Greece – Many of the mourners on the funeral have been youngsters.
Christos Michalopoulos’s classmates, pals, and household gathered outdoors a church close to the central Greek metropolis of Thebes to bid farewell to the 17-year-old who died throughout a police chase on November 11.
Wearing black, they clung to one another in silence, some in tears.
The air hung with a way of shock. A number of relations appeared lightheaded. Some fainted and needed to be held upright or taken away for medical care.
When the bier was carried out of the church, a small crowd chanted his identify as if answering his identify on a faculty attendance register: “Christos Michalopoulos! Present!”
Michalopoulos died with a bullet lodged in his clavicle after being pursued by officers, marking the third time in lower than three years {that a} Roma teenager has been killed in incidents involving Greek police.
Since that fateful Saturday, there have been protests, requires justice and clashes with police throughout the nation.
Michalopoulos’s family members say police killed him, a declare that has not been confirmed by the Hellenic Police service.
Amnesty Worldwide has known as for a “prompt, thorough, transparent and effective investigation into the latest incident as well, including an investigation into a possible discriminatory motive”.
On November 16, an accused police officer who has not been named, gave his preliminary testimony in Thebes.
Michalopoulos’s family members waited outdoors the courtroom for hours, chanting slogans with the cadence of soccer slogans that the boy remained amongst them, as they cursed the police and their lawyer.
“He was a very quiet kid, always smiling, he didn’t bother anyone,” mentioned Chronis Kenzis, 17, a good friend and relative of Michalopoulos. “He was crazy for his car, with his music, driving around, with all of this. And he passed away unjustly. Very unjustly.”
One other good friend and relative, Panagiotis Chatzidiakos, 18, mentioned he was speechless when he heard Michalopoulos had died. He mentioned he and his pals face common harassment from the police. He feels wherever he sits, wherever he hangs out, they may hassle him.
“The cops are all racist,” Chatzidiakos informed Al Jazeera. “And in this period, where they’ve taken three kids, what can I say? We’re afraid to move around.”
Kenzis mentioned the police as soon as stopped him and a good friend at a neighborhood taverna and carried out a full physique search on them.
“All of the neighbours came and saw us,” he mentioned. “And here in Thebes everyone knows us, it travelled mouth to mouth and everyone heard about it.”
As they waited to see how the investigation would proceed, the teenage pals paced backwards and forwards, anxious to see if the accused police officer can be held in custody after his testimony.
“We want justice,” mentioned Chatzidiakos. “And for this not to happen again. We have to do something about this. It won’t just be three murders by cops, there will be others. And not only Roma, but also Pakistanis, Albanians, all of us.”
The accused officer was later launched from custody after giving his testimony. He has been briefly suspended from lively police responsibility.
“All of us who spent time with Christos, these days we’re feeling horrible,” mentioned Chatzidiakos.
The incident
Throughout the fateful automobile chase, officers pursued the automobile Michalopoulos was driving on a highway outdoors of Thebes.
Michalopoulos’s brother and two different youngsters have been passengers.
The Hellenic Police say the automobile was driving erratically, at excessive velocity. They signalled it to cease, a warning that they are saying was ignored. The police report says officers chased the automobile till it hit a parked automobile and got here to a standstill.
Officers say they then “approached the vehicle to conduct a high-risk check, during which the checked driver was injured after a shooting”.
The circumstances of that capturing are being investigated, the police mentioned of their report.
The lawyer performing for the police officer who was allegedly concerned has said that it seems {the teenager} tried to grab the gun.
In his testimony, the police officer, reportedly mentioned: “I used to be shouting for him to open the door, so we may test on him, I had taken out my pistol as a result of I didn’t know who was contained in the car and if he carried a weapon.
“When I opened the car door, he tried to grab my gun. When I realised his intention, I drew the pistol and then I heard the click, I froze.”
The sufferer’s brother countered this in an interview with Greek tv channel OPEN, claiming the officer hit the window of the automobile with the gun, pulled Michalopoulos out of the car, kicked him, after which shot him.
A couple of days after the incident, a CCTV video that was filmed close to the scene of the killing was launched, during which the trade between the police and the youngsters might be heard.
Within the clip, the automobile might be seen dashing by with the police four-wheel drive in shut pursuit.
The police officer might be heard yelling, “Stop! Stop!”. Then there are muffled knocking sounds, and inside seven seconds, gunshots and screams.
Michalopoulos’s brother might be heard shouting, “What did the child do for you to shoot him? What did he do?”.
In response to experiences in Greek media, the post-mortem confirmed that Michalopoulos was shot at shut vary, whereas forensic proof signifies that none of his DNA was discovered on the gun.
The lawyer representing the Michalopoulos household has accused the police of tampering with proof. He alleged that police washed the location of the incident, that police transported and cleaned the car pushed by the 17-year-old, and that they wiped the deceased boy’s palms.
On the time of writing, the Hellenic Police had not responded to Al Jazeera’s requests for remark.
Alleged police killings of Greek Roma youngsters
The Michalopoulos household identifies as belonging to the Roma neighborhood, an ethnic minority that’s closely persecuted throughout Europe.
“We are Greek Gypsies, Greek Roma, we exist in many different cities. But here in Thebes we are all fully integrated,” Apostolis Michalopoulos, Christos’s cousin, informed Al Jazeera.
The Panhellenic Confederation of Greek Roma has accused police of discrimination, given the opposite latest lethal incidents.
“How much more research is needed on dead Roma before we decide as a state and as a society to proactively and courageously face racism and intolerance so that today one more family does not mourn?” the group mentioned.
Referring to 2 former police-led killings of Roma boys, it added: “A sin (Nikos Sampanis killed in 2021), which became a sin (Kostas Frangoulis killed in 2022) and is becoming a sin again today. Always for Roma.”
Each courtroom instances in opposition to the law enforcement officials concerned are persevering with.
Sampanis, an 18-year-old boy, was killed by police on the outskirts of Athens on October 23, 2021, following a automobile chase. A squad of Greek law enforcement officials on motorbikes chased the automobile he was driving in, in Perama, and fired at the very least 36 bullets into the car.
Preliminary police experiences contradicted radio communications which have been later launched, during which officers might be heard saying that “three people inside are Gypsies”.
The Sampanis household has called for an investigation into hate crime costs, and their lawyer has accused the police of trying to cowl up the crime.
Kostas Frangoulis, 16, was shot by police on December 5, 2022, in Thessaloniki after police chased the boy in his automobile after he allegedly stole gasoline price 20 euros ($22).
His demise led to days of protests in Thessaloniki and throughout the nation.
“There have been three fatal shootings of Romani teenagers in Greece in three years, and while that number is alarming on its own, Roma across Europe are unfortunately very familiar with racist and violent policing,” mentioned Johnathan Lee, an activist and spokesman on the European Roma Rights Centre.
“We see the police as the blunt edge of a larger state instrument that does violence towards Romani people. … It’s not just the ethnic profiling and the harassment; every stage of the process is biased, or working against Romani people throughout the system.”
“I think a lot of people are going to rightfully view the investigation into this killing with a great deal of scepticism.”
