A candidate for parliament descends in Second Piraeus with the ND, “an area in which he had strong anti-immigrant activity during the Golden Dawn”, as Reuters comments
In the working class neighborhoods on the outskirts of Athens, o Spiros Richard Hagabimana is going door to door in an election campaign that could bring him to Parliament and become the first black member of parliament of Greece.
It is a remarkable journey for him 54-year-old Hagkabimana of Burundian originwho just eight years ago was jailed in his native Burundi for refusing to open fire on anti-government protesters, as high-ranking officer of the National Police
Spyros Hagkabimana – deputy commander of the Reception and Identification Service of the G.G. Reception of Asylum Seekers, a candidate for parliament descends in Second Piraeus with the New Democracy – “an area in which the Nazi Golden Dawn party had strong activity against immigrants”, as Reuters comments.
An immigrant with Greek citizenship himself, he has a specific opinion on dealing with racism.
“Racism cannot be fought with words alone. Racism is fought with everyday actions. When the other person is afraid of the unknown, you have to give them the opportunity to come into contact with what they are afraid of,” he said in an interview with Reuters
His resume
He was born in 1969 in Bujumbura, Burundi of East Africa and graduated in 1988 from Bururi High School.
In 1991 he was admitted to the School of Naval Cadets from where he graduated in 1996 1st among foreign Cadets.
In the same year it was introduced to Law School of Athenswhere he joined and became active in its student faction DAP-NDFK. Alongside his studies in Law, he worked from 1997 to 2005 at the Library of the Athens University of Economics and Business (ASOEE).
In 2005 he acquired Greek citizenship and in July of the same year he returns to Burundi, as then the regime changed and the democratic state was in the east after 10 years of civil strife, which kept him away from his homeland.
Returning to Burundi, he joined the local Coast Guard, which was administratively under the Burundian Police, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
He then participated in UN peacekeeping missions and gained extensive experience in crisis analysis and response, as well as in re-establishing the rule of law. He participated, among others, in the following missions:
• 2008-2010 Ivory Coast (at the heart of the civil war) with the mission of organizing elections and re-establishing the Rule of Law.
• 2011-2013 participated in the UN Peacekeeping Force in Haiti (The United Nations Stabilization Mission (MINUSTAH)) to assist in the stabilization of the country, after the devastating earthquake.
In the period 2013-2015 he was the Deputy Chief of Operations of the Burundi Police. His active stance in defense of the Constitution in Burundi – which was violated by the country’s president – was the reason he was arrested on June 27, 2015 and tortured on the charge of a coup plotter against the regime.
He was released after 210 days of detention in February 2016 following diplomatic pressure on the Burundian regime by the Greek State, the European Union and the UN. Since then he has started a marathon fight to denounce the human rights violations in Burundi.
In February 2020 he was appointed Advisor to the Ministry of Immigration & Asylum, a position which he maintained until the beginning of March, where he was then appointed Deputy Commander of the Reception & Identification Service of the G.G. Reception of Asylum Applicants of the Ministry of Immigration & Asylum.
He is fluent in English and French and also speaks Kirundi and Swahili as his mother tongues.
He is married and has an 11-year-old son, Louis-Marc.
Source: Skai
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