#rbnews weekly bulletin 06-12 July 2013

The text companion to this week’s #rbnews international show is now online. You can read it after the jump.

#rbnews international show 13 July 2013: reactions to the case of Kostas Sakkas

For this week’s #rbnews international show, we asked netizens from Greece and abroad to send in their reactions to the case of Kostas Sakkas, who was released on Thursday 11 June after 951 days in prison without a trial and 38 days of hunger strike.Many thanks to all those who sent in a short sound clip, and apologies to those whose clips we couldn’t broadcast due to a lack of time.You can listen to the podcast, as usual, after the jump.

Why I’m taking it personally

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been going to bed at night and waking up in the morning thinking of a person I have never met and will likely never meet. I hardly know anything about the man himself. I only know that his name is Kostas Sakkas, that he’s 29 years old and that he was a university student until December 2010. That’s a lot less than what I knew about all the people I wrote letters for when I was a campaigner for Amnesty International.

#rbnews weekly show 06 July 2013 – The failure(s) of democracy in Greece

This week on the #rbnews international show, we asked lawyer Crystali Bourcha from the Movement for the Liberties and Democratic Rights of our Times (Greek acronym KEDDE) and journalist Mariniki Alevizopoulou from Unfollow Magazine to comment on the items that we included in our news bulletin of the week, which all seem to point towards the failure of democracy in Greece.You can listen to the podcast and read the news bulletin after the jump.The interviews were taken by phone. We apologize for the poor quality of the sound, especially in the case of our interview with Crystali Bourcha. For some unexplainable reason, the recording device was particularly intent to add parasites to her speech. 

#rbnews weekly bulletin 22-28 June 2013

The text companion to this week’s #rbnews international show is now online. You can read it after the jump.

Kostas Sakkas: Three years on remand in order to… make an example

Translation of Katerina Kati’s article for The Editors’ Νewspaper, 03 June 2013

Re-posted from eagainst.com

He has been on remand for 3 years and was prosecuted twice for the same offence, despite the fact that his name doesn’t even appear in the case file.

The maximum time he should spend on remand expires tomorrow; and he chose this date to start a hunger strike, clarifying that “this is not an act of desperation, but rather to keep up the fight.”

He was prosecuted twice for the same offence. He was put on remand twice.

The maximum time he could be held on remand for the second time is twelve months. But when this time was over, instead of being released, his detention period was extended for another six months. Meanwhile, his first trial has not been completed and the second (for which he is now being held prisoner) has not even started.

All this, seventeen years after the adoption of Law 2408/1996, which prohibits splitting a single case against the same defendant into several cases and imposing multiple, successive pre-trial detentions, in order to prevent that temporary custody extends beyond the statutory 18 months.

#rbnews weekly bulletin 25-31 May 2013

Prepared by the #rbnews international team, translated by @IrateGreekThe text companion to this week’s #rbnews international show is now online. You can read it after the jump.

Arbitrary detention of a professional photojournalist in Thessaloniki

Τranslated fro Greek by @ToSofoPaidi

A photojournalist denounces the police for detaining him while he was doing his job

Dear colleagues,

With this letter I wish to report an incident that happened to me on May 17th, around 2:20pm on Tsimiski street, near Aristotelous square (Thessaloniki).

As an Associated Press photojournalist in Thessaloniki, I was informed by a colleague that a homeless man was sleeping on a bench in Tsimiski street with a guitar  by his side (just outside the “Folli Follie” shop). Luckily I was at a nearby cafe so I got there in a few minutes.

#rbnews weekly bulletin 20-26 April 2013

The text companion to this week’s #rbnews international show is now online. You can read it after the jump.

#rbnews international show 09 February 2013: Police brutality in Greece

This week on #rbnews international, given the abundant news related to arrests and torture by the Greek police, we discussed the issue of police brutality in Greece with Maro Savvopoulou, the press officer from the Greek chapter of Amnesty International. Amnesty has recently published a report on this matter and is currently conducting a campaign to push the Greek authorities to investigate these allegations and take appropriate action.

You can follow Amnesty Greece on Twitter @AmnestyGreece.

You can listen to the podcast after the jump.