The police are always on the front line to help society, as they helped yesterday in the evacuations in Alexandroupoli to help people leave safely, emphasized the Minister of Citizen Protection, Yiannis Oikonomou, speaking to SKAI, on the show Kalimera with Giorgos Avtias.

He added that in the same area, in Evros, a few days ago the police officers together with the border guards prevented 900 illegal invasions of Greece by immigrants every day, they made 30 arrests of smugglers, shields the borders of Greece and Europe.

However, he reiterated that in the case of the Croats from the first moment we said that there were failures and mishandling, “we are not hiding them under the carpet”.

In relation to the assignment of responsibilities, he said that “we decide with justice and determination to improve”, however, he stressed that “we will not allow the discrediting of the Greek Police”.

He emphasized that there was a chain of mistakes at many levels and added that they will continue to be held accountable which will happen soon.

“We will correct the procedures so that such failures do not happen again. Investigations are ongoing, certain people have been invited to testify. Very soon we will have additional accountability, we are not hiding the problems under the carpet. It was something impermissible and unacceptable that should not have been done,” the Minister of Citizen Protection emphasized.

He added that “there is no possibility of not assigning responsibilities where they belong, there is no possibility of not learning from mistakes, but there is no possibility of allowing the general discrediting of the police because they provide a dignified service”.

For measures against fan violence he emphasized that steps have been taken after the Kampanou case, but they need reinforcement and this is the direction of what the prime minister announced. “We are closing the windows that allow some to take advantage of the loopholes” he said and added that the battle is everywhere and holistic and we will fight it at all levels to deal with organized crime.

Regarding the investigations into the killer of Michalis Katsouris, he said that it is ongoing, it is not an easy task and we are waiting for what the seized mobile phones, the DNA analysis, the visual material will show. “Everything that needs to be done will be done,” he said.

He called on everyone to exercise restraint as the case is ongoing and asked us to wait for official announcements.

More in a while…