First man charged under Greece’s 1997 race crime law
A 33-year-old man became the first person in Greece to be charged with a law dating back to 1997 punishing racially motivated violence on Friday.
The 33-year-old was arrested on Thursday in the southern Athenian suburb of Nea Smyrni by police investigating claims that he and another two accomplices had attacked a Bangladeshi street peddler at least eight times.
The 44-year-old migrant, who sells knickknacks at a traffic light in the neighborhood, said that he has been repeatedly assaulted by the suspect and two other men and severely beaten, also suffering racist remarks in the process.
