Greek Guerrilla Group Claims Responsibility for Murders of Two Golden Dawn Supporters

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

ATHENS, Greece – A rising group known as the “Militant People’s Revolutionary Forces” has claimed responsibility for the murder of two supporters of Greece’s Golden Dawn party earlier this month.

The group stated the murders were in retaliation for Fissas’ murder back in September. (Photo courtesy of Ekathimerini)

The Militant People’s Revolutionary Forces, an anti-establishment group, released an eighteen-page letter on Saturday claiming that it conducted a drive-by shooting that left two members of the Golden Dawn party dead outside the Party’s offices.

The group stated that the murders were conducted to retaliate for Golden Dawn’s alleged involvement in the murder of activist-rapper Pavlos Fissas back in September. A Golden Dawn supporter had confessed to the murder, but the Party itself has denied any involvement in Fissas’ death.

“The brazen murder of Pavlos Fissas was the drop of blood that made the glass overflow. The armed attack-response … is the starting point of the people’s campaign to send the neo-Nazi scum of Golden Dawn where they belong, to the dustbin of history,” the Militant People’s Revolutionary Forces’ letter stated. The letter was published on the news website www.zougla.gr, though the authenticity of the letter has not been validated by police.

Amidst the murder of the two Golden Dawn supporters, Greece has seen a growing public angst against Golden Dawn, which is widely regarded as “neo-Nazi” and frequently accused of attacks against migrants and left-wing activists.

Golden Dawn’s leader, Nikolaos Mihaloliakos, and five additional Golden Dawn leaders were recently charged with “belonging to a criminal group”, as the Greek government has cracked-down on the party due to the public furor surrounding Fissas’ murder.

The party, Greece’s third most popular according to surveys, had lost nearly a third of its support after Fissas’s death this past September, even though the party denies accusations of all violence and rejects its neo-Nazi label. An opinion poll that was also released on Saturday indicated that support for Golden Dawn had subsequently increased since its two supporters were murdered in retaliation.

The poll by ALCO released in the Proto Thema newspaper, conducted from November 12 to 15, put support for Golden Dawn at 8.8 percent, up 2.2 points in a month, but still below the 10.8 percent it enjoyed in June.

For more information, please see:

The Independent – Previously Unknown Greek Group Claims Responsibility For Golden Dawn Shootings – 17 November 2013

New York Times – Guerrilla Group Says It Killed Two From a Greek Extremist Party in an Athens Suburb – 17 November 2013

Ekathimerini – New Urban Guerrilla Group Claims Murders of Golden Dawn Members – 16 November 2013

Reuters – Greek Militant Group Claims Golden Dawn Killings – 16 November 2013

Former Argentine Army Officer Accused of Human Rights Violations Escapes from Security Forces

By Ellis Cortez
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – A former Argentine army officer accused of committing crimes against humanity during the 1976-83 military dictatorship has escaped while in transit to a court in Buenos Aires.

Wanted poster form the Argentine Justice Ministry
Lawless handed himself in to police in 2009 after a reward for his capture had been offered. (Photo Courtesy of BBC)

Alejandro Lawless, 66, fled at midday from a police van outside a court building where he was being taken to along with other prisoners. Airport Security Police said they were temporarily distracted by escorting other prisoners to the court house. Lawless, who was not wearing handcuffs, took advantage of their distraction and escaped.

Lawless was an engineer who had served as a lieutenant-colonel in the army. He was found guilty in 2010 for his involvement in kidnapping, torturing and killing political opponents of the government between 1976 and 1983.The charges he faces entail his time working in the Navy and the Command Corps V of the Army.

Investigations into human rights abuses committed under the military regime have led to the imprisonment of key figures of the military junta, including that of Gen Jorge Rafael Videla who died in prison earlier this year while serving a life sentence.

Lawless is the third convicted military officer to escape from custody this year. The others were Jorge Olivera and Gustavo De Marchi who broke out of a military hospital in July and are still on the run. Seven staff members were relieved of their duties following their escape.

Estela de Carlotto, head of the Grandmothers of  Plaza de Mayo, a human rights organization, expressed dismay at his escape. “It is negligence or, to think the worst, complicity. This is serious, it will have to be investigated and those responsible sanctioned,” Estela de Carlotto told reporters.

An estimated 30,000 people were killed during the seven years of military rule in a campaign against perceived dissidents known as the Dirty War.

For more information please see:

Buenos Aires Herald – Carlotto says repressor Lawless escaped with ‘complicity’ – 13 November 2013

The Argentina Independent – Former Army Officer Escapes Custody on way to Tribunales – 13 November 2013

BBC – Jailed Argentine ex-army officer Alejandro Lawless escapes – 13 November 2013

Global Post – Jailed former Argentine army officer Alejandro Lawless escapes – 13 November 2013

La Nacion – Se fugó un ex militar procesado por delitos de lesa humanidad – 12 November 2013

U.S. Senators Call for Alexander Bastrykin and Other Russian Officials to be Subject to Magnitsky Sanctions in US and Europe

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Distribution

14 November 2013 – Two prominent U.S. Senators have called for sanctions to be applied to Russian top law enforcement officials, including Alexander Bastrykin, and other human rights violators under the Magnitsky Act in the US and in Europe.

“Henchmen like Alexander Batrykin who violate the rights of citizens” do not fall within the traditional categories of war criminals, but “the dynamic of administrative sanctions, however, changed with the passage of the Magnitsky Act in the United States,” argue US Senators Wicker and Cardin in their newest appeal “A European Magnitsky Act: Why the Continent Must Unite” revealed on Wednesday at the inter-parliamentary ‘Justice for Sergei Magnitsky’ event held in Brussels on the eve of the fourth anniversary of Magnitsky’s killing in Russian police custody.

“Senior leaders in foreign ministries across the [European] continent have addressed the Magnitsky case on numerous occasions in recent years. None of their entreaties has evoked much more than a yawn from the Kremlin,” say the Senators Cardin and Wicker who sponsored the Magnitsky bill in the U.S. Congress.

The senators have criticized the lack of concrete actions from the EU Council of Ministers in adopting Magnitsky sanctions, in the face of the impunity of Russian officials responsible for the false arrest, torture and killing of 37-year Sergei Magnitsky, and subsequent high level cover-up, and in spite of the three resolutions from the European Parliament in favour of the sanctions.

“An early positive lesson of the Magnitsky Act is that disciplinary action will be noticed and taken seriously by those accustomed to acting with impunity… For sanctions against human rights violators to be most potent, those who are unwelcome in the US should also be unwelcome in Europe,” say Senators Cardin and Wicker.

The appeal to EU Council of Ministers from Senators Cardin and Wicker is published in the new book “Why Europe Needs a Magnitsky Law” edited by a Russian-French journalist Elena Servettaz presented in Brussels yesterday.

For further information, please see:

Law and Order in Russia