In Brief
GYPSY MURDER
Policeman to be disciplined, leaked report reveals A police officer who shot dead a young Gypsy man in the Athens district of Zephyri last October is to face disciplinary action by the Greek Police after the force recommended his dismissal, the human rights groups representing the victim’s relatives revealed yesterday. According to an internal police investigation into the incident disclosed by members of Helsinki Watch and the Greek Minority Rights Group, Giorgos Stylianakis – who shot Marinos Christopoulos, 20, after the latter refused to stop at a police roadblock – «will face a disciplinary committee and has been recommended for dismissal…as he fired his gun… knowing he was endangering the life of (Christopoulos).» This is the first such case the Greek Police’s disciplinary committee has handled. TELEVISION Extra Channel fined for report on president Television regulators fined a small private TV station 146,735 euros ($132,000) yesterday for broadcasting a report considered offensive to Greece’s president, the Athens News Agency reported. The National Council for Radio and Television imposed the fine on Extra Channel over a January 31 report which claimed President Costis Stephanopoulos’s family had rented property to a businessman who had installed illegal gambling machines on the premises, the news agency reported. The government and opposition parties accused the station of trying to undermine Stephanopoulos’s presidency. The regulatory agency said the channel had been fined for «using misleading language, filming with a hidden camera and causing panic among television viewers,» the Athens News Agency said. The report did not say if the ruling could be appealed. (AP) STREAMBEDS Legislation allows more building Legislation allowing construction on the few remaining streambeds in the greater Athens area was approved by parliament yesterday. The vote also approved a clause which endorses construction on the site of the Olympic Media Village in Maroussi of further accommodation for journalists reporting on the Athens 2004 Olympics. Environmentalists, who want stricter legislation limiting construction activity, protested outside Parliament on Wednesday prior to yesterday’s vote. Farmers Cotton farmers yesterday continued their sporadic blockades of crucial road junctions in central and northern Greece, reiterating demands for higher crop subsidies. A large group of tractor-borne protesters threatened to seal off the Athens-Thessaloniki highway for 48-hours, starting today, if their demands were not met. Meanwhile, farmers from the northern prefecture of Evros withdrew their tractors from the Turkish and Bulgarian border crossings of Kipi and Ormenio and freed up the national road junction of Didymoteichos after unionists decided to revise their strategy in the face of government intransigence. The Agriculture Ministry stated on Wednesday that nearly half of this season’s cotton subsidy claims were fraudulent. Turkish violations Greek fighter planes were yesterday harassed several times by Turkish aircraft as they entered Cypriot airspace on the second day of the «Toxotis 1 2002» military exercise in Cyprus. On Wednesday eight Greek planes were «buzzed» by Turkish F-16s in Nicosia’s Flight Information Region. The aim of the exercise – which also included ground troops and navy units – was to test the joint defense capabilities of Greece and Cyprus. Cyprus talks Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash yesterday hinted that ongoing UN-brokered negotiations with Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides may need to extend beyond the June deadline proposed by the UN Security Council, despite pressure from the latter for a swift settlement. Denktash told a Turkish-Cypriot radio station that he considered June as a deadline because he was due for heart surgery near that time, but added that he may postpone the operation until the end of the year. End of argument An Athens court yesterday rejected the appeal of a 71-year-old man – who shot his wife dead on New Year’s Eve 1999 following an argument over where the couple would see in the year 2000 – upholding a jail sentence of 10 years and six months. Iraklis Nousas, who tried to kill himself after fatally shooting his wife Evgenia, 68, with a rifle, originally faced 20 years in jail but his sentence was reduced due to the extenuating circumstances of justified rage and a clean record.
