Ioanna Mandrou

An important intervention to prevent squatters in university schools was noted by the Prosecutor’s Office of Athens, as the head of it, Antonis Eleftherianos, ordered an urgent investigation with a dual objective.

Both those who participate and organize the occupations, as well as the rector’s authorities who tolerate the occupation of university premises and do not do the necessary to prevent them.

In particular, according to the prosecutor’s order, the urgent investigation has already been assigned to the prosecutor Nikolaos Margaritis, an order is given to investigate crimes, which are prosecuted ex officio, that is, on the initiative of the prosecutor, without the need for a lawsuit, for illegal violence and for obstructing the operation of the Higher Education Institutions (disruption of the operation of a public service, as the offense in question is described in the law).

These offenses concern those who carry out the occupations, while there is also an order to investigate the offense of breach of duty, which concerns the rectory authorities, in the sense that they do not take the measures required by law in the context of their duties to protect the operation of the university.

The prosecutor’s intervention, which signals the strong reaction of the state to the ongoing occupations, was an outcome of the assessment by the head of the Athens Prosecutor’s Office Antonis Eleftherianou, but also of the strong protest expressed to the prosecutor’s authorities by parents of students and students, who do not want the closure of the university schools, while there were not a few who conveyed to the public prosecutors their intention to file massive lawsuits against the rectory authorities and against those who organize the occupations.

In any case, the investigation is urgent due to its nature and is assigned under the supervision of the prosecutor Nikolaos Margaritis who took it over to the State Security.