African communities in Athens dismiss claims that appeared on a report aired by British Channel 4 that ‘there were patrol brigades named Black Panthers for the self-defense of immigrants against racist attacks by extreme-right Golden Dawn.”
According to news website NewsIt, after the Channel 4 report, the Ministry of Public Order and Citizen Protection contacted the African communities in Athens to confirm the claims. The communities have reportedly assured the ministry that there were not such patrol brigades established by immigrants.
NewsIt spoke with one members of the community in Athens.
Nicodemus Okinawa told Newsit that “there were no such groups in Greece, neither Black Panthers, nor anything like that,” stressing at the same time “that a law abiding migrant citizen must be protected by the Constitution and the Greek state.”
He added, “it is true that we get attacked by extremists groups, primarily by the Golden Dawn.”
the members of African communities have Greek citizenship.
Channel 4 report here.
PS At the end of the day, what do we have? One man claiming there were “Black Panthers” brigades, and one man claiming “there were no Black Panthers brigades”…
