Athens News Agency: News in English, 07-03-31

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Greece suspends all team matches until April 13 after fan's death

[02] PASOK accuses minister of 'disrespect' over Paiania battle

[03] Papariga: Pro soccer clubs should be abolished

[01] Greece suspends all team matches until April 13 after fan's death

As 13 fans arrested during the incident went up before a public prosecutor, meanwhile, government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos stressed that current laws did not allow suspended sentences or fines for those convicted of sports-related violence and that they would go straight to jail.

The spokesman also announced the formation of a special committee, which would include the three ministers, to monitor that laws were strictly carried out and said that Orfanos would call a meeting with all professional sports clubs and bodies during Easter week to discuss action against hooliganism.

Roussopoulos underlined that authorities would take pains to track down hooligans and hold specific individuals responsible for violence, ensuring that all stadiums had cameras installed and that tickets were issued electronically by name, so that those attending games could be identified.

The clash involving some 500 hooligans occurred on Thursday evening ahead of a women's first-division volleyball match between Greece's two largest clubs, arch-rivals Panathinaikos and Olympiakos. According to police reports, there is strong evidence that it was arranged in advance and that the match itself was just a pretext. The two groups engaged in a 20-minute battle in the eastern suburb of Paiania, during which a young man in his early 20s was killed and several others, including passers-by not directly involved in the fighting, were seriously injured. Police intervened, detaining 18 people and arresting 13, who were charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm.

According to the coroner's report, the slain Panathinaikos supporter was killed by severe blows to the head with a blunt instrument, such as a club, but also suffered multiple stab wounds from two knives and had been kicked while lying on the ground. The victim had not, however, been run down by a car as suspected earlier.

While investigating the incident, police raided the offices of 11 Panathinaikos and Olympiakos fan associations around Athens, recovering items such as clubs, crowbars, chains, flares and a quantity of hashish.

Among those arrested and sent before a public prosecutor was the driver of the car seen ploughing through a crowd of battling fans, who was originally suspected of running over the slain youth. Police said the car had actually run down an Olympiakos supporter who is now being treated in KAT hospital.

According to the driver, he was trapped in his car in a line that had formed because of the battle on Lavrio Avenue and was attacked by Olympiakos supporters who realised that he and the three passengers in his cars were Panathinaikos supporters headed for the women's volleyball match at the Paiania Sports Centre.

When they began to damage his car, the driver swung into the opposite lane in an attempt to escape them and accelerated, so that he ran over one of the young Olympiakos supporters.

A 14th man - the head of a fan association in Peristeri - was also placed under arrest and led before a public prosecutor on Saturday after he turned himself in. Police had been looking for him after finding a number of suspect items at the fan association's offices during Friday's raids.

Following a meeting at police headquarters on Friday, investigating officers said they had no firm evidence that the arrival of Panathinaikos supporters on the scene had been organised in advance but it was clear that Olympiakos supporters had orchestrated their arrival in large numbers.

They were seen leaving Karaiskaki stadium, the Olympiakos home ground, on 150 motorbikes headed for Paiania, while another 50 motorbikes joined the group at the Kallimarmaron (Panathenian) stadium in central Athens.

[02] PASOK accuses minister of 'disrespect' over Paiania battle

Speaking on Thursday, Polydoras had described police action as "successful" and said that they "arrived in time and helped prevent the (hooligans') disturbances from getting worse."

The clash between some 500 Olympiakos and Panathinaikos supporters ahead of a women's first-division volleyball match in Paiania was obviously orchestrated in advance and led to the death of a young man in his early 20s, while several people were seriously injured.

PASOK sec't addresses youth conference

PASOK secretary Nikos Athanassakis addressed the party's affiliated youth national conference on Friday, accusing the government of "unreliability".

"Everything is falling apart in the country. The car is moving backwards ... Conservatism, anachronism, backwardness, return to the most vicious conditions of the past...We are completely absent from the international scene. The famous 'new governance' by the New Democracy party is developing into a government of deception," Athanassakis noted.

Referring to the party's youth group, he said PASOK wanted youth to be a "supporter and protagonist in the struggles", adding that the issue was not organisational but political, "one that demands changes in practices and mentalities".

Referring to the situation prevailing within the main opposition, Athanassakis underlined that "problems dating from the older party generations passed on to youth."

[03] Papariga: Pro soccer clubs should be abolished

"Championship sport cannot be linked with commerce, because it then becomes raw violence and corruption," she underlined, in comments on Thursday's clash between fans in Paiania that led to the death of a young Panathinaikos club supporter.

Papariga criticised the measures taken by the government as "dousing fires" and said that there was political responsibility for the incidents "for all the governments that have cooperated with the PAE instead of abolishing them, who have mixed up football and sport generally with betting, so that doping firms and betting firms generally have become a state within a state".

All this gave birth to teams with "organised" supporters and cultivated violence, she added.

Referring to issues in education, KKE's general secretary noted that the student movement was entering a new phase following the passing of the bill in Parliament, where through struggle within and outside of universities, in all its forms, it had to create conditions to have the law reversed and not be implemented.

Questioned about the bond scandal involving Greek pension and social security funds, meanwhile, Papariga underlined that "stench and scandal and above all, anti-popular policy" would be the order of the day as long as ruling New Democracy and main opposition PASOK continued to dominate political life.

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