Arrests of street traders at university draw leftist students’ criticism
Five street traders were arrested at the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) on Tuesday during a police raid that prompted an outcry from some students.
One trader was arrested outside the university, where migrants had set out their wares. The other four were arrested on university grounds after being chased by police, who seized a number of contraband items, including 2,120 packs of cigarettes, 281 CDs, shoes, watches and sunglasses.
However, the officers’ decision to enter the university grounds prompted SYRIZA’s youth wing to complain that asylum rules had been breached and that the police had aimed to “terrorize the student movement.”
“The government is the one that is extreme by believing that universities, like every free space for public dialogue, is its own backyard, where it can come and go,” the leftists students said in their statement.
