Mayor arrested in bid to save Faliron trees
A suburban Athens mayor at the head of a campaign to make the capital’s planned new tram network more environmentally friendly was arrested yesterday during a bid to save a group of eucalyptus trees from tram builders. Palaio Faliron Mayor Costas Hadzidakis was to be charged with resisting arrest and damaging foreign property after a heated altercation with riot police guarding the Achilleos Street work site. «By no means did I hit an officer,» he told Kathimerini. «My arrest was conducted in a most violent fashion, as if I were a terrorist.» Hadzidakis, who had to be hospitalized after a June fight with police during an anti-tram protest, said there was no need for the trees to be felled. Municipal officials added that tram workers have cut down 742 trees in Palaio Faliron. Tram officials said the eucalyptuses have to go, adding that new trees might be planted on Achilleos Street.
