ANTINAZI INITIATIVE
(www.antinazi.gr , info@antinazi.gr)

PRESSRELEASE

AFTER THE ACQUITTAL OF THE NAZI K. PLEVRIS:
NOW A VERY «SPECIAL» APPEAL BY THE SUPREME COURT AS A MANOEUVRE TO AVOID INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION OF THE GREEK STATE

On May 22, 2009, the engrossed decision of the 1st Five-Member Court of Appeal was issued, stating the grounds of acquittal of the Nazi K. Plevris for his criminal libel “Jews: the whole truth”. Excerpts from the grounds of acquittal, which are more provocative than the verdict itself, were found on the Web (e-lawyer) by early June. These grounds blatantly misinterprete the content of the libel by adopting the nazi’s defending claim that his call for the extermination of the Jews was really directed at the Jewish Zionists, though the whole libel, from start to finish, is in fact bluntly and undoubtedly aimed at all the Jews throughout the ages. In addiction the grounds of acquittal accept that K. Plevris presented himself in the “book” as a “Greek nationalist”, while he himself declares in it (p. 600): “I am a Nazi, a fascist, a racist, and an anti-Semite” and at that he constantly praises openly the Third Reich and the “sublime national-socialists”, as he refers to them. However the court’s decision says:


In the first place, there should be pointed out that, in accordance with the inalienable right of each person to self-determination, the accused declares to be a “Greek nationalist”, because he believes in Greek nationalism and doesn’t express the ideas of foreign nationalisms (as nazism is the manifestation of German nationalism and fascism the manifestation of Italian nationalism), and it is under the prism of his ideological position that the reader of the disputed book should view all things contained in it, and particularly those dealing with the Holocaust of the Jews” (!)

But the above mentioned do no more than reveal the efforts of the specific court to clear the accused of the charges, by blatantly distorting and virtually trampling upon the existing testimonial matterial.

What is shocking, however, is that these grounds are overtly anti-Semitic, as they recognize that condemning the Jews may not be racistic, so long as the conspiracy-for-a-global-Jewish-dominance argument is used against them!!! So whoever calls for the extermination of the Jews is not guilty, as long as he uses against them as “additional argument” the quintessence of the anti-Semitic racist propaganda, the ideological instrument that half a century ago served as the basis for the extermination of 6 million people, against them as a “supplementary reason”!

Here is the relevant excerpt:

“From the above it is clear that the accused doesn’t turn against the Jews, only for reason of their racial and ethnic descent, but basically for reasons of their desire for global dominance, of the methods they use for its realization, and of their conspiratorial activity” (!)

On June 1, 2009, that is a few days after the Court of Appeal had issued its decision, the Antinazi Initiative filed a petition against the decision to the Supreme Court Public Prosecutor’s office, although its grounds were not at our disposal because the prosecution denied us access to them. By this 10-page petition the ANI requested the Supreme Court Public Prosecutor to overrule the decision of shame and called upon him to lodge a petition for regular annulment. Similar petitions were also filed by the Greek Helsinki Monitor and by the Central Jewish Council of Greece.

THE SCANDALOUS ANNULMENT “IN FAVOR OF THE LAW”

The Supreme Court Public Prosecutor’s office chose NOT TO LODGE A PETITION FOR REGULAR ANNULMENT AGAINST THE DECISION BUT TO LODGE A PETITION FOR “ANNULMENT IN FAVOR OF THE LAW”, which means that they left the Court of Appeal’s decision untouched, that is, they validated the nazi’s acquittal but lodged an annulment to prevent the decision from being considered right in the future!!!

How did this absurdity happen? It happened this way: Although the petitions concerning the illegal and unacceptable character of the decision were submitted by the accusers of Plevris to the Supreme Court Public Prosecutor’s office on time, almost immediately after the Court of Appeal had issued its engrossed decision, still the Public Prosecutor’s Office deliberately let the time-limit to lodge a petition for regular annulment against the nazi expire. If such a petition was lodged then the trial could resume and the nazi be condemned. When the time-limit for the petition for regular annulment expired, the Public Prosecutor’s office did the only thing they could do: They lodged a petition for annulment “in favor of the law”. This is something that rarely happens, and only when a decision violates the law but, for some reason, noone, no litigant or public prosecutor files a motion for annulment against it within the time limit provided (from 15 days to a month). So, if the judicial authorities take notice of this wrong decision after the time-limit for regular annulment, then the Supreme Court’s Public Prosecutor may lodge a petition “in favor of the law”, for fear that the illegal decision may set a judicial precedent, meaning that more judicial decisions based on this one may be issued.

But what is the point, where is the sense of what the Supreme Court Public Prosecutor’s office has one in this case? They were informed of the illegal character of a decision and instead of lodging a motion for its reversal, they let the acquittal of the accused untouched, and waited for the time limit to expire in order to file this empty and with no consequence for the accused annulment “in favor of the law”.

The fact that something like this happened can only be explained as an effort by the whole official political regime to reconcile two things: first the nazi’s acquittal and second, the appeasement of the international response to the acquittal. We are not personally referring to the Public Prosecutor that has filed the petition for annulment, because he may have lacked the opportunity to do something else, considering the time at which he was given the brief. We are referring to the Public Prosecutor’s office in general, that as we know took the petitions, put them aside and only examined them when the time-limit for the regular annulment was about to expire or even after that.

Actually, the barbarous call for the extermination of the Jews, one made by Hitler followers, a call that even the perpetrators of genocide Nazis of the Third Reich had never dared so openly cry out, could not be justified by the international public opinion. So, the Greek government has been stormed by expressions of rage and disapproval, especially from the international Jewish organizations, most typical of which was the one manifested during the meeting between the Jewish communities of Europe and European Parliament representatives. The Antinazi Initiative’s international campaign against the acquittal has also played an important role. It revealed the favorable for the nazi stance of most judges and public prosecutors that took part in the trail’s procedures, as well as the stance of the official political regime in favor of the nazi, and called upon international organizations and citizens inside or outside Greece to send the prime minister of the country, a protest-letter, urging him to use all institutional means provided for to reverse the decision, that is to ensure that the Supreme Court lodges a petition for annulment (we mean of course a regular annulment and not an annulment “in favor of the law”). Many major anti-racist organizations abroad and many democrats in our country took part in this campaign by sending letters to Karamanlis.

Finally, a bill of indictment in the form of questions recently dispatched by the UN Commission on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), on the matter of how do the Greek authorities counter anti-Semitism and nazism, and especially on the matter of K. Plevris, must have caused a lot of worries to the government of K. Karamanlis and to the judicial authorities of the country.

With this petition for annulment “in favor of the law”, rather than “in favor of the decision’s reversal” as it ought to be, the political and judicial regimes could now claim inside or outside the country that the specific decision may be valid, but the judicial authorities don’t find it lawful (!), so the judges must be “more careful” in the future when someone openly calls for the extermination of all Jews. But there is no need for a new book that asks bluntly for the genocide of Jews. There is still one that goes on repeating it in 1,400 pages and this one is legal and its author innocent!!!

While this annulment is a slight retreat of the regime and a small victory of the anti-fascist camp, still it manages to preserve what is most essential, which is the acquittal for the specific nazi and for the specific book. By preserving nazi’s acquittal, it doesn’t only allow the re-editing and distribution of the criminal libel in perpetuity, but also covers the judges who were involved with their anti-Semitic texts and positions in this acquittal with their anti-Semitic texts and positions and also in ousting the counsels of the complainants from any disciplinary measures. All the more so, it rescues the LAOS party member of parliament, Adonis Georgiadis, who has called the racist book “his favorite one”, or the member of parliament Thanassis Plevris – a distinguished LAOS TV spokesperson, current member of the European parliament and counsel of defence of the Nazi K. Plevris – who claimed that his father has the democratic right “to demand the extermination of a people”, from much of their political exposure. Finally, it rescues LAOS and the political regime as well, that remained silent to all this shame.

THE PLOTTERS WILL BE TRAPPED IN THEIR PLOTS

In truth, the big issue this trial has set to light is not that the most brutal and barbarous call for mass anti-Semitic murder one could imagine in the post-war world remains unpunished, but that the anti-Semitic rationale of this call can be finally adopted by Greek judges without any sanctions being imposed on them. It is revealing that in the grounds of the “on behalf of the law” annulment none of the arguments of decision of the Court of Appeal are being criticized.

The acquitting decision of Athens Court of Appeal and its validation by the Supreme Court will remain an eternal stigma, not only for the Greek justice but above all, for almost all the Greek political world.

We are referring to all those who have fascilitated and supported the acquittal, who have fomented and accomodated the anti-Semitic orgy of the judges by their stance. We are talking about all those who have let the TV channels, which are controlled by the 5 parliamentary parties, wipe out virtually any news and any reference to this historical trial, and hide them away from the eyes of the great majority of the Greek people.

In our country only a small circle is yet aware of this scandal concerning the acquittal of the nazi K. Plevris, but it is a matter of time that it becomes widely known either inside or outside it. All those setting up these plots to cover up the scandal will be finally trapped in them, because each time they gain a victory they expose themselves to dozens of new accusations. These things will not remain secret, neither for the Greek people nor for the peoples of the world because those who fight for the truth and the democracy will always be present and in fact increasing in numbers and determination.

The Antinazi Initiative will continue the struggle through a campaign to inform the Greek people and will appeal to all European institutional organs so that the acquittal of Nazism will not be tolerated in Greece. We warmly thank all the international anti-racist organizations and all Greek and European democrats that participated in the protest-campaign of our Organization. We will continue to inform them on every development of the matter.

Athens Jule 10, 2009

On behalf of the Antinazi Initiative

Anna Stai
Rena Koutelou