Urgent prosecutors’ probe into deadly clash instigated by Croatian hooligans; 7 top police lose command

Seven senior police officers in Greece were sacked from their command positions on Tuesday, hours after an unprecedented rumble-cum raid outside the AEK Athens football stadium by Dinamo Zagreb hooligans and local supporters resulted in one fatality and several injuries.

The relevant public order minister, Yiannis Economou, made the announcement amid a firestorm of media scrutiny and wide-spread criticism over how the group of up to 200 hooligans casually used an urban rail line to reach the Opap Arena stadium in northwest Athens. Additionally, the Croatian hooligans were recorded as entering, en masse, Greece from the Kakavia border post on the frontier with Albania.

Media reports said customs officers thoroughly searched all of the vehicles in the convoy, reportedly finding no incriminating objects, such as clubs, knives, incendiary devices or even full-face masks. Nevertheless, video footage of the violence on Monday evening showed masked hooligans swinging clubs and bats, and tossing firebombs and fireworks. One victim, a 29-year-old local man, was stabbed to death.

In a bid to exercise “damage control” a day later, Economou said it was “unacceptable” that the hooligans were permitted to cross the border and make their undeterred way to Athens. At least some of the seven senior police officers, who were cashiered from their posts but remain on the force until further notice, were supervisors of stretches of a closed ultra-modern tollway that leads from just south of the Albanian border to Athens – more than 450 kilometers in length and interspersed with numerous toll booths – ie real time CCTV monitoring and police checkpoints.

Of the 98 people arrested, most are Croatian nationals. More than a dozen are Greek citizens, while it was undetermined if they were present in Nea Philadelphia at the time of the attack and fought back, or, if they are “ultras” of another Athens team who allegedly aided the Croatian hooligans. Additionally, other nationals arrested included a German, an Albanian and an Austrian.

Greek authorities said the clashes and violence began an hour and a half after the Dimano Zagreb squad had finished a practice at AEK Athens’ pitch, inaugurated last year, ad known officially as the Aghia Sophia (St. Sophia) Opap Arena.

As a result of the deadly football-related violence, Economou postponed a planned meeting on Tuesday with his Albanian counterpart at the same Kakavia border crossing.

In a related development, Supreme Court chief prosecutor Georgia Adilini ordered the Athens appeals courts and first instance courts chief prosecutors to commence an urgent preliminary inquiry and to supervise the police investigation into violent clashes.

Among others, the chief prosecutors were instructed to investigate whether the offences of forming a criminal organization or inciting others to criminal acts were committed.

Adilini also instructed prosecutors to review whether police surveillance of the hooligan convoy was botched.

The return leg match in Croatia will go ahead as planned next Tuesday, Aug. 15, UEFA announced on Tuesday, with the game in Athens (the first leg) to be rescheduled for either Friday, Aug. 18 or Saturday, Aug. 19.