Another special guard kills self
A union representing police special guards yesterday accused senior officers and government officials of displaying a consistent lack of sensitivity to their problems after yet another special guard killed himself with his service gun. Ioannis Mamalis, 25, was found dead in his flat in the eastern Athens suburb of Zografou shortly before midnight on Sunday, with a single bullet in the head. His service handgun was on the floor beside the body. Police said Mamalis, who served at the Ambelokipi police station, left a suicide note complaining that his superiors had refused to transfer him to his hometown of Thessaloniki. Mamalis was the fourth police special guard – a supplementary body formed in 1999 – to take his life in the past three months, and the fifth such suicide this year. The head of the Attica police guards’ union, Vassilis Doumas, resigned in protest yesterday, while the union issued a statement accusing Public Order Ministry officials of «duping» special guards on what they consider to be matters of life and death, such as transfers.
