At one point tension arose when a young man passed by and said something that disturbed some of the protesters who chased him while he fled to a nearby shop. The incident ended without further consequences. The president of SYRIZA-PS, despite the fact that he expressed his will to attend the event, did not come to the meeting place.
Upon his arrival at the Thessaloniki festival held at “Olympion” he was verbally attacked by unknown hooded men. Then the same people threw a helmet at an EL.AS officer and incidents were threatened until MAT forces arrived.
Earlier, a group of about 30-40 people from the extreme right tried to approach the spot and moved against the protesters. The demonstration of LGBTI members of Thessaloniki was underway in Aristotelous Square, when those gathered noticed the presence of a far-right group.
With the assistance of people from the anti-authoritarian space, they were pushed towards the narrows of the square, while the police have proceeded with arrests. The protest held against the transphobic attack on two transsexuals was dominated by the message “We exist”. With banners and placards, members of the LGBTI community condemned homophobia, fascism and discrimination.
The Police made 16 arrests.
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Those arrested for the homophobic attack against two members of the LGBTI community, last night in Aristotelous Square, were referred to the Autonomous Single-Member Criminal Court of Thessaloniki.
These are 9 out of a total of 21 arrested, as the remaining 12 are minors and were released by verbal order of the public prosecutor, after having previously referred them to the competent Juvenile Court.
All those arrested were prosecuted for serial insults with racial characteristics, while two of the adults were additionally charged with attempted serial simple bodily harm (again with racial characteristics).
The case file filed by the Thessaloniki Racist Violence Department of ELAS also includes unknown perpetrators who are being prosecuted for threats. The 9 defendants who were referred to trial by the automatic procedure, remain in custody and will be brought to court tomorrow.
Finally, the Thessaloniki First Instance Prosecutor’s Office examines whether criminal responsibilities arise against the parents of the minors. According to ELAS, among the 21 arrested are 9 Greeks and 12 foreigners (originating from Albania and Georgia).
Reactions from politicians
With a post on social networks, the government representative Pavlos Marinakis condemns the homophobic attack against two people, yesterday, in Aristotelous Square in Thessaloniki. “The attack with elements of lynching on two of our fellow citizens in Thessaloniki causes sadness and anger, simply because they have a different sexual orientation,” says Mr. Marinakis in his post.
“Social fascism is not going to be tolerated. The perpetrators of these heinous acts will be held accountable in Justice”, he continues and concludes: “Greece is moving forward. Sad exceptions are not going to leave us behind.”
“Disgust”, notes Stefanos Kasselakis in a post on social media, in which he “uploaded” the video of “yesterday’s mass attack against two transgender people, in the most central part of Thessaloniki”.
“I invite you to see it, so that we can reflect together on the magnitude of the decadence, and the fascism and racism lurking in our society. When the ruling people turn into a mob, we have nothing good to look forward to in the future,” he underlines.
The president of SYRIZA PS emphasizes that “the time has come for us progressive citizens to take the country into our own hands”, adding: “They seem more because the darkness always makes a lot of noise. There are more of us and we are in the light.”
Aversion.
I am uploading the video from yesterday’s mass attack against two transgender people, in the most central part of Thessaloniki.
I invite you to see it, so that we can reflect together on the magnitude of the decadence, and the fascism and racism lurking in our society.
When the… pic.twitter.com/6yePhJysmy— Stefanos Kasselakis (@skasselakis) March 10, 2024
“The images from Aristotelous Square are absolutely reprehensible,” says Pavlos Christidis, head of K.T.E., in a post on Twitter. of Human Rights of PASOK -KINAL.
On the occasion of the homophobic attack yesterday by a crowd of young people against two victims, he notes: “However, it is also an image that reflects the consequences of hate speech, the reproduction of stereotypes and the lack of a meaningful dialogue to secure the rights of all people.” “We have a way to go and we will,” concludes Mr. Christidis.
The homophobic attack was also condemned by the mayor of Thessaloniki Stelios Angeloudis with his post on Facebook.
The attack of hundreds of people on two non-binary people in Aristotelous Square in Thessaloniki on Saturday night (09.03.2024).
The two non-binary people, as they describe themselves, had a difficult time in Aristotelous Square in Thessaloniki, as can be seen in the videos, as the mob chased them with fury and hatred.
As the victims (both 21 years old) reported, a group of people verbally attacked them and threw bottles at them, with them finding “shelter” in an adjacent restaurant to protect themselves. The perpetrators continued to harass them even when police forces arrived at the scene, with whose help the victims of the attack were taken to the police station where they filed a complaint.
@provc1ntcyu♬ original sound –
One of the two non-binary people who was attacked spoke to newsit.gr and described the difficult times they went through. “I’m from Athens and I went with my girlfriend for a walk in Thessaloniki. Yesterday was the second day in the city and in the evening we went for a walk in Aristotelous and got ice cream. There, out of nowhere, many groups started approaching us, whistling, cursing us. There were hundreds. Others say there were 200 people, others 300. I was personally spat on, one pulled my jacket, they pushed us, they threw bottles at us.”
As he said, he was hit on the head and they found shelter in a restaurant. “A girl came in front of me to help us, but she was also pushed. I said to my friend let’s go, someone hit me on the head. We entered a restaurant located in the square to save ourselves. There the store staff helped us a lot. They came threateningly to the store and fought with the staff.
Then the police came. It was all shocking. These were all different groups who wanted to mock us. Arrests have been made but everyone must be found. We spent the night giving statements at the police station, while also going to the hospital for tests. Fortunately, we are fine.”
In a post on tik tok they describe everything they experienced on Saturday night.
Police officers proceeded to arrest a total of 25 people and after examining them, 21 were arrested, among them 11 minors and 10 adults, while a case file was filed against them. The youngest who has been arrested is 15 years old.
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