In the Greek streets of Athens and Thessaloniki, thousands of protestors have marched in a bid to call for justice after a 16-year-old Roma boy was shot by a police officer.
The boy, who has not been officially named, reportedly drove from the service station without paying for 20 euros of petrol.
He was taken to hospital after the shooting on December 5 and underwent emergency surgery. The young teen remained in intensive care but died eight days later. His funeral is scheduled for Thursday.
“Today… despite the enormous efforts of staff in the intensive care unit, the patient died,” The Guardian reported a statement made by Thessaloniki’s Ippokratio hospital.
Despite repeated calls from his relatives and community leaders for protests to remain peaceful, violence has broken out in Athens and Thessaloniki. Greek media reported protestors blocking roads and setting tyres on fire on Tuesday.
Thessaloniki police said about 50 people from a university campus threw several molotov cocktails during riot at a police unit stationed nearby.
It was estimated 2,500 people were demonstrating in Thessaolinki where the teenager lived and died, calling out the discrimination the Roma community faces in Greece.
“It wasn’t the gas, it wasn’t the money, the cops shot because he was Roma,” the protestors in Thessaloniki chanted.
The police officer accused of firing the shot has been under house arrest since Friday on a felony count of attempted manslaughter with possible intent and a misdemeanour count of illegally firing his weapon.
Source: The Guardian, Ekathimerini
