By Madeline Schiesser
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

ATHENS, Greece – A florist in Athen’s Amerikis Square praised them for cleaning up the neighborhood, saying that, “The first phone number people call is no longer the police. It’s Golden Dawn.”  However, with slogans such as “Clean up the Stench,” and “Greece for the Greeks,” the ultra-nationalist, neo-fascist party, Golden Dawn (Chrysi Avgi) has been accused of taking the law into its own hands and attacking immigrants, despite its denial of violent activity.

“Before, there were only ugly words. Now they are on the point of killing people,” says Javed Aslam, an elected leader of the Pakistani community since 2003.

In the latest act of violence directed at the immigrant community, a 27-year-old Pakistani man on his way to work was stabbed and died Wednesday.  Shehzad Luqman, who had been living in Greece for 6 years, was traveling on his bicycle in the early morning when he was attacked by two men on motorcycle, according to police.  A witness claims one of the men attacked Luqman from behind with a knife after an argument.  Two accused men, a 29-year-old firefighter and a 25-year-old private sector employee, later admitted to stabbing Luqman in the chest.

The attack is believed to be racially motivated.  Fifty Golden Dawn pamphlets, along with bats and knives, were found in the home of the 25-year-old man.

Athens’ Mayor Giorgos Kaminis called for an end to authority’s failure to punish racism on Friday: “The impunity must stop and getting to the bottom of the murder of the 27-year-old citizen from Pakistan could represent a significant starting point . . . The City of Athens, Greek society and democracy cannot tolerate such repulsive behavior any longer.”

On Saturday afternoon, an Anti-Racism rally in central Athens’s Omonia Square drew a crowd of some 3,000 immigrants and Greek human rights activists.  The demonstrators carried banners with phrases such as “Neo-Nazis out” and “Punishment for the fascist murderers of Shehzad Luqman.”  Earlier that day, about 300 Pakistani immigrants also gathered outside the Athens city hall, bearing Luqman’s coffin; a prayer was held around the coffin.  The demonstrators’ goal was to protest the death of Luqman and draw attention to the continuing failure of Greek authority to protect immigrants in Greece.

“Perhaps his murder will bring hope that these attacks will stop. We are protesting for the government to take measures to stop racist attacks,” Javed Aslam told Reuters.

Nevertheless, Greece remains hostile to foreign immigrants, as was demonstrated by the results of the June 2012 parliamentary elections in which Golden Dawn won seven percent of the vote.  Running on a platform essentially of anti-immigration and crime and financial fears (one in four workers is without a job and nearly 20 percent of the economy has dried up) the party now occupies 18 of the 300 seats in the Greek Parliament.  Moreover, their popularity continues to grow; an October opinion poll showed that support for Golden Dawn had grown from 7.5 percent in June to 10.4 percent in October.

Numerous times members of Golden Dawn have been involved in violent attacks against immigrants.  The watchdog 1 Against Racism says vigilante groups in Athens neighborhoods “approach migrants in public places, usually at night, ask them where they’re from and then attack.”  Golden Dawn Members are identified by victims or witnesses as part of the attacking group because “they carried the party’s emblems or because they were recognized from other party events in the same area.”

To members of the immigrant community, it seems as though the police have turned a blind eye.  “There are two separate laws. The police leave the fascist alone, and if a foreigner does the slightest thing he goes to jail,” Aslam says. “It is clear that practically they don’t stop them.”

For many immigrants, Greece is the gateway to the European Union, with more than 80% of immigrants to the EU, many from Africa and Asia, passing through.  However, under Golden Dawn’s philosophy, all immigrants should be ejected from Greece, and its boarders militarized with landmines and armed patrols.

Amnesty International has stated that Luqman’s murder demonstrates the “continuing failure” of the Greek authorities to take action to put an end to racist violence.

For further information, please see:

RT – Thousands March in Athens Protesting Racist Attacks in Greece – 20 January 2013

BBC News – Rally in Athens against Greece’s Golden Dawn – 19 January 2013

Kathimerini – Mayor Leads Call for Zero Tolerance on Racism – 18 January 2013

Al Jazeera – Golden Dawn Glows Amid Greece Gloom – 25 October 2012

Al Jazeera – Greece’s Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn is a European Problem – 16 May 2012

By Alexandra Sandacz
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe 

PARIS, France – Last week, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Paris to protest President Francois Hollande’s bill to legalize same-sex marriage. Protestors waived their pink and blue flags depicting fathers, mothers and children to express their concern over the marriage bill.

In his 2011 campaign, President Hollande promised he would move to grant the full status of marriage to gay couples. His promise would essentially upgrade France’s 1999 PACs civil union law, which granted a number of rights to registered partnerships. As a result, President Hollande pushed through a same-sex marriage law with his Socialist party’s parliamentary majority, however, not without opposition.

Despite a strong indication for the support of the legalization, followers of the Catholic Church, members of the extreme far-right Front National party, some Muslims, evangelicals, and a few openly gay people showed up to the Eiffel tower to voice their disagreement with Hollande’s new bill. Protestors believe same-sex marriage would cause psychological and social harm to children regardless of the need for equal rights of gay adults.

However, notwithstanding their opposition to same sex marriage, protestors insist they do not oppose gays and lesbians. Instead, they support the rights of children to have a father and a mother. Protestors raised posters and banners that read, “Marriagophile, not homophobe,” “All born of a father and mother,” and “Paternity, maternity, equality.”

Two Parisians, Jean-François and Amelie, stood next to the Eiffel Tower and held up placards next to their baby buggy that said, “Papa and Mama — nothing is better for a child” and “Children can only be made with a man and a women.”

A 39-year-old business man and his wife handed out chocolate bars and stated, “We are demanding the withdrawal of the gay marriage law.”

Furthermore, Yvonne Raguet, a mother, three-time grandmother, and practicing Catholic participated in the protests, “Gays shouldn’t be allowed to adopt children. It breaks with all traditions.”

Supporters of Hollande’s bill believe the legislation will finally provide equal treatment of gays, lesbians, and the children same-sex couples are raising together.

Same-sex marriage is legal in 11 countries such as, Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Norway, South Africa, and nine states in the United States.

For further information, please see:

CNN – Protestors rally against same-sex marriage in France – 15 January 2013

Spiegel – Mass Rally in Paris: France Agonizes Over Plan to Allow Gay Marriage – 14 January 2013

BBC News – Mass Paris rally against gay marriage in France – 13 January 2013

NBC News – Protesters in France: Gay marriage would hurt children – 13 January 2013

By Madeline Schiesser
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BEREZNIKI, Russia – Maria Alyokhina’s 5-year-old son, Filipp, will likely not see his mother for nearly two years.  The 24-year-old member of the punk rock band Pussy Riot lost her appeal yesterday requesting a deferral of her prison sentence until her son was older.  Instead, Alyokhina, convicted of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” over a “punk prayer” aimed at Russian President Vladimir Putin last winter, will serve out the remainder of her incarceration until 2014.

In her plea, Alyokhina reasoned that Filipp, in his formative years, would suffer irreparable psychological damage from long-term separation from his mother.  “I’m in a situation where I have to prove here that my son needs me, which is obvious,” she said.  Instead, she asked to be allowed to serve her sentence when her son is 14.

However, the Berezniki court in the Perm region of the Urals Mountains near where she is jail, determined that the length of Alyokhina’s sentence already reflected her role as a mother.  In rejecting the petition, Judge Galina Yefremova stated that “the fact that Alyokhina has a young child was taken into account by Moscow’s Khamovnichesky court.”  Because Alyokhina had showed “[n]o new circumstances,” she will remain in prison at Corrective Labor Colony No. 28, 750 miles north-east of her family in Moscow.

Unfortunately, sentence deferrals are uncommon.  In several prison colonies, female prisoners raise their children in jail.

Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, and Yekaterina Samutsevich were convicted in August of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” for a “punk prayer” protesting the Putin presidency.  Samutsevich was later released on a suspended sentence.  (See Conviction Upheld for 2 Pussy Riot Members, 1 Released for more information.)  All three have refused to admit any wrongdoing.

“No-one will force me to say I’m guilty – I have nothing to repent for,” Alyokhina said earlier in court.

Tolokonnikova launched a similar deferral appeal in October.

Amnesty International has characterized the denied appeal as a “travesty of justice.”  The organization considers Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova to be prisoners of conscience and believes that their sentences were politically motivated.  David Diaz-Jogeix, Deputy Program Director for Europe and Central Asia says that the decision shows “the Russian authorities are uncompromising in their suppression of freedom of expression” and that the verdict was “in line with the suppressive policies of the Russian authorities, stifling dissent in any form.”

Alyokhina has described her existence at the prison colony as “an anti-life.”  “Everything around is grey. Even if something is another color, all the same it has an element of grey. Everything: the buildings, food, the sky, words,” she says.

In addition to the monotony, life at the prison colony consists of adjusting to a strict set of rules and few resources.  The women must rise at 5:30 am, and forty prisoners share a bathroom with three basins and two toilets.  They have learned the prison rules by rote in a special room with a security camera.  Activities include stringing together cigarettes, and sewing nametags onto their uniforms.  In a workshop, female prisoners sew for 12 hours a day and receive a maximum pay of 1,000 rubles ($32.57) a month.

Alyokhina explained that one’s entire mindset is focused on following the rules in order to receive early parole.  Points are awarded for visiting the library and the psychologist, contacting relatives, and even going to a prayer room, although Russia is actually a secular state.  “Everything a prisoner does is to get a tick for early parole,” she said.

However, early in her stay at the colony, Alyokhina stated her intent to maintain her autonomy, saying “we make different choices in a hopeless situation.”  This attitude may have brought her into conflict with other prisoners.  In November, Alyokhina was transferred to solitary confinement, at her own request, because other inmates were said to be behaving aggressively towards her after she refused to join them in a hunger strike.

In the meantime, Filipp is staying with his grandmother, but, according to Tolokonnikova’s husband, the boy “is small and misses his mother.”

For further information, please see:

Moscow Times – Court Turns Down Pussy Riot Appeal – 17 January 2013

Amnesty International – Russian Punk Singer Refused Sentence Deferral – 16 January 2013

BBC News – Russia Court Turns Down Pussy Riot Jail Plea Over Child – 16 January 2013

RFE/RL – Russian Court Denies Pussy Riot Member’s Appeal – 16 January 2013

The Journal – Jailed Pussy Riot Member Slams Routine in ‘Grey’ Camp – 18 December 2013