Violent protests resume in Greece’s Athens

14:00 | 21/ 12/ 2008

ATHENS, December 21 (RIA Novosti) – Hundreds of Greek youths staged
fresh protests in Athens, clashing with police amid Greece’s worst
riots in decades sparked by the recent killing of a teenager by police,
local TV channels reported Sunday.

Students threw stones and firebombs at police in the Athens district of
Exarchia where 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos had been shot dead
on December 6, and also erected roadblocks around the nearby
Polytechnic University. The police responded with tear gas, TV channels
said.

The riots, sparked by the youth’s killing, earlier spread to other
Greek cities, leaving a trail of destruction as youths went on the
rampage looting shops and setting fire to hundreds of cars, banks and
businesses.

A recent opinion poll published by the Ethnos newspaper said 83% of
Greeks were unhappy with the methods used by the government to deal
with the violence.

Two police officers have been detained over the teenager’s killing. One
of them, Epaminondas Korkoneas, who claims he fired warning shots in
self-defense which ricocheted, was charged with murder and the illegal
use of his weapon. The second officer, Vassilios Saraliotis, was
charged with aiding and betting Korkoneas