12 residents of Oreiokastro, Thessaloniki, who were accused after reactions that took place in a Primary School in the area in February 2017, on the occasion of the attendance of 9 refugee children in that particular school, were found not guilty..

Adopting the proposal of the district attorney, the Single-member Court of First Instance of Thessaloniki acquitted them of the offenses of inciting acts of violence, with racial motives, as well as illegal violence, threats and insults.

The case reached the courts after an ex officio preliminary investigation ordered by the District Attorney’s Office to the Department of Racist Violence of the Thessaloniki Security.

The 12 residents, who had responded to a call by the self-proclaimed “Patriotic Union of Citizens of Oreokastro”, apologized and said that it was a symbolic protest, with which they wanted to express their reaction because “there was not the necessary infrastructure for refugee children to attend school”.

As they said, they did not prevent the entry of the children, since they entered the school from the next door, while the act of abuse did not concern the refugee children, but was a “reaction to previous abuse” allegedly received by an anti-racist movement group, the members of which they had gathered at the same point.