The prosecution of the prison guards in Nigrita unfortunately demonstrates that some employees have not only misunderstood their role, but they also violate and brutally attack the very idea of the rule of law.
The inhumane beating to death of the Albanian prisoner, as retribution for the murdered colleague, not only alludes to other, darker times, but it also defies the very concept of justice and democracy.
In a law-abiding country, like want to believe that Greece is, every citizen that has committed a crime must be able to enjoy the fruits of the rule of law that ensure the right to a fair trial. It is unacceptable for guard to torture and beat someone to death in the name of their anger over their murdered colleague.
However difficult the working conditions of prison guards might be, they are obliged to respect the law and their fellow human being, irrespective of what they may have done. The time when prisons were dungeons, from which one was lucky to make it out alive, are long gone. Nobody has the right to take the law in their own hands as a self-imposed vigilante, must less someone who has been appointed to uphold the law.
Our country has been reviled and accuse many times for the terrible conditions and treatment in Greek prisons, especially against foreign prisoners. We must finally be done with these phenomena.
The investigation in to the circumstances of the death of the Albanian prisoner must be carried out to the end so that people are held accountable for their actions. Justice is obliged to perform its duty and send a message to everyone that it does not discriminate amongst the people and that everyone can enjoy the rights provided by the rule of law.
TO VIMA
