Death of Pakistani delivery worker in Athens Police station triggers outrage

Outage in Greece over the “mysterious” death of a Pakistani national in one of the police stations in downtown Athens. Anti-racist organizations, solidarity groups  and left-wing opposition parties Syriza, New Left and MeRA25 speak of “police cover up”.

The body of 37-year-old Mohamed Kamran Asik was delivered to his family full of signs of multiple beating, with his vamily to denounce “torture” and taking legal action, asking the Prosecutor’s Office for an immediate investigation to clarify the causes of his death.

Initial police information spoke of “death due to pathological reasons”. However, the reality shows a different aspect and suspicion as pictureσ exclusively obtained by documentonews.gr showed.

ATTENTION: GRAPHIC IMAGES

Police claimed that he was already beaten – not known by whom – when he was detained in the middle of September. Also the reasons for his detention are not known.

Police in Agios Panteleimon station in central Athens reportedly held him in a cell without surveillance cameras and later claimed that Mohamed was in rage and even damaged the water sink in the cell. An ambulance was called three times, but all the three times it left without the detainee.

According to NGO against Racism, KEERFA, police had registered him as homeless who does not speak Greek.

In reality, Mohamed had been living in Greece since 2004, he got a residence permit in 2017, lived together with his wife and their three children and other family members in a home with residence contract in his name and had been working in stable environment as delivery boy for food platforms. he always carried his ID and residence papers with him as well as two mobile phones.

He was detained from September 13 to September 21 and he was not allowed to speak either with his family or his layer. His family considered him as “missing”.

He was found dead in the cell on Saturday morning, September 21, 2024.

Mohamed’s family, lawyer, friend and colleagues seek a further investigation into his death and justice.

Initially the Greek Police ordered an investigation assigning with it the police station where Mohamed died.

The outrage grew and claims of a cover up filled the media.

A spontaneous protest rally late on Thursday lead to clashes with riot police, two detentions and two arrests and the brutal beating of a protester by a group of riot policemen.

One more protest rally is organized for Friday evening at Victoria Sq, while delivery workers at platforms Wolt and e-Food will launch a strike and a protest rally on October 11, with the support of the Attica Tourism Food Union.

Friday morning, a ‘concerned’ Minister of Citizen Protection assigned the Greek Ombudsman with the investigation.