Glyfada Municipality refuses to dig up dead and close illegal cemetery
The Municipality of Glyfada insisted on Thursday that a cemetery it opened in 2011 is perfectly legal and indicated that it would defy a central government order to dig up and remove the bodies that had been buried there as well a demolishing a small chapel.
The government’s Attica Regional Administration sent a letter Mayor Costas Kokoris this week demanding that the cemetery be returned to its previous state. The cemetery was hastily built in August 2011 but the Environment Ministry halted work because the site was located on forestland, where no construction is permitted.
Kokoris, who had the backing of the local bishop, said he was forced to build the cemetery because of a lack of space to bury the dead. The municipality was fined 103,000 euros for its actions last year.
