New chief of police appointed
Attica’s police chief was promoted yesterday to head of the force, replacing the man under whose leadership police eradicated the November 17 and ELA terrorist groups and staged the biggest security operation the country had ever seen, during the August Olympics. The Government Council on Foreign Policy and Defense appointed Lieutenant General Giorgos Angelakos, 51, as chief of police following the expiry of Fotis Nasiakos’s second three-year term. Nasiakos had been due to be replaced earlier this year, but was granted an extension so that he could see the Olympic security operation – on which Greece spent 1.3 billion euros – to its conclusion. Angelakos, who joined the force in 1972, has headed the Attica police drugs squad, and was appointed Attica police chief in 2002. Police unionists yesterday expressed reservations at Angelakos’s appointment, saying he had ordered riot police to attack officers demonstrating for better pay in central Athens last year. There will be a similar protest in Syntagma Square on Friday and Saturday.
