The 2008 Greek riots started on 6 December 2008, when Alexandros Grigoropoulos (Greek: Αλέξανδρος Γρηγορόπουλος), a 15-year-old Greek student, was killed by a special officer in Exarcheia district of central Athens. The killing of the young student by police resulted in large protests and demonstrations, which escalated to widespread rioting, with numerous rioters damaging property and engaging riot police with Molotov cocktails, stones and other objects. Demonstrations and rioting soon spread to several other cities, including Thessaloniki, the country's second-largest city, and international cities in solidarity. Newspaper Kathimerini called the rioting "the worst Greece has seen since the restoration of democracy in 1974".
While the unrest was triggered by the shooting incident, commentators described the reactions as expressing deeper causes as well, especially a widespread feeling of frustration in the younger generation about specific economic problems of the country (partly as a result of the Great Recession), a rising unemployment rate among the young generation and a perception of general inefficiency and corruption in Greek state institutions.
The shooting incident
The fatal shooting that triggered the riots and protests took place in the evening of 6 December 2008, shortly after 9 pm, in the Exarcheia district of central Athens.
According to press reports, two special guards (Ειδικοί Φρουροί) (a special category of the Greek police personnel, originally meant for guard duties on public property) had been engaged in a minor verbal clash with a small group of teenagers in a main street of Exarcheia, outside a shop. On driving away in their police car, they were then confronted by another small group at a nearby street crossing. The two guards were ordered by the Greek police center of operations to disengage immediately and withdraw from the confrontation site. However, the two guards did not comply and were later accused of insubordination. Instead, the two special guards chose to station their police vehicle outside the PASOK headquarters, left the car and went to Tzavella Street on foot, in order to confront the youngsters.
Following some exchange of verbal abuse that, according to several witnesses, was initiated by the guards, one fired his gun. The guards said that a group of youth had thrown stones and other items at them. Eyewitnesses who spoke to Greek media, however, reported that the special guards were not attacked by the youths, nor was their physical safety put in danger at any time. Instead, the special guards approached the group and verbally assaulted them in order to provoke them. The special guard said he fired three rounds, two warning shots in the air and a third aimed on the ground. Several eyewitnesses said they believed the policeman had directly targeted the youngsters.
The victim, Alexandros – Andreas Grigoropoulos (Greek: Αλέξανδρος – Ανδρέας Γρηγορόπουλος) was a 15-year-old student, who lived in the affluent northern Athens suburb of Palaio Psychiko and attended the private Moraitis School. Immediately following the shooting, he was transported to the nearby Evangelismos Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Investigation of the shooting
A criminal investigation was initiated against the police officer who fired the shot, on a charge of murder ("intentional homicide" according to Greek law), while his partner was charged as an accomplice. Both were suspended from duty and were kept in detention. The defense counsel who was initially hired resigned shortly after accepting the case, citing personal reasons.
On 10 December, Alexis Kougias, counsel for the defendants, said that preliminary results of the ballistic tests apparently show that it was indeed a ricochet and that the two policemen will only appear before the public prosecutor after the forensic, toxicological, and ballistic examinations had been completed. However, the results of forensic tests indicated that the bullet that killed Grigoropoulos had entered the youth's body directly. This supported doubt on claims, by the 37-year-old policeman charged with the boy's murder, that the bullet had been fired as a warning and ricocheted. On the morning of 11 December, Dimitris Tsovolas, former MP and economic minister under the previous PASOK government, agreed to serve as the counsel for Grigoropoulos' family.
On the same day, counsel for the two policemen involved in the shooting released an explanatory statement, that described the deceased as demonstrating "deviant behaviour." According to the memorandum, Grigoropoulos was a teenager from a wealthy family, he frequented the Exarcheia district, had allegedly taken part in riotous activities that took place following the end of a basketball game two hours before he was shot, and that, in general, "the victim did not show the expected behaviour and personality of a 15-year-old adolescent." Grigoropoulos' family, friends, schoolmates and high school teachers immediately condemned those statements and declared in public that the allegations in the defendants' memorandum are "completely inaccurate" and "insulting"; the private school Grigoropoulos attended also issued a public statement that denies all the allegations. Kougias' stance, as well as his comments in the explanatory memorandum, forced the Athens bar association to initiate disciplinary proceedings against him.
On 15 December, Kougias appealed for the two defendants to be released from custody, on the grounds that neither of them ever had any previous criminal convictions, that their names and addresses were known, that they had considerable ties with their community, and that the charges were based on the testimony of witnesses that the defendants objected to. Specifically, the defendants' counsel took issue with the testimony of four eyewitnesses who had testified for the public prosecutor, and appeared to refute almost all the claims made by the defendants and their counsel.
On 17 December, Dimitris Tsovolas, counsel for Grigoropoulos' family, publicly requested that the defendants and defendants' counsel stop provoking the Greek people and the victim's family by making degrading comments, unsubstantiated accusations, and smearing the memory of Alexandros. The ballistics report was also released on 17 December and stated that the bullet that killed Grigoropoulos had in fact ricocheted. However, forensic reports conducted on 21 December concluded that the bullet was not fired in the air, but rather towards the group of teenagers, though there may have been no intention to kill the boy.
Court decision
On 11 October 2010, the Mixed Jury Court of Amfissa (consisting of 3 judges and 4 jurors) found the two special guards guilty. Epaminondas Korkoneas was found guilty of "homicide with direct intention to cause harm" and Vasilis Saraliotis was found guilty as an accomplice. Korkoneas was sentenced to lifetime and an additional 15 months of imprisonment (votes 4–3) while Saraliotis was sentenced to ten years of imprisonment (votes 6–1). In July 2019, the life sentence against Korkoneas was overturned on appeal and reduced to 13 years imprisonment, and Korkoneas was subsequently released from prison.
The riots and political crisis
First 2 days
Within the hour following the shooting of Grigoropoulοs, angry demonstrators took to the streets in and around Exarcheia, and violent confrontations with the police erupted. Meanwhile, similar demonstrations were reported in other Greek cities as well, including Thessaloniki, Ioannina, Komotini, Kastoria, Patras, Tripoli, Volos, Chios, Trikala, Mytilene, Agrinio, Kavala, Corfu, Piraeus, Chania, Heraklion, Rhodes, Karditsa, Lamia, Stylida, Drama, Xanthi, Lagkadas, Kozani, Alexandroupoli, Larisa and Corinth. After midnight, the demonstrations in Athens turned into violent rioting in some central streets of the city. By dawn on Sunday, 24 police officers had been injured, one seriously (with facial burns and his little finger mutilated) and 31 shops (particularly across Ermou Street), 9 banks, and 25 cars had been either seriously damaged, burned, or destroyed within the downtown area.
First week
By Sunday 7 December 2008 38 vehicles were damaged, 13 police officers were injured, and 22 rioters were arrested.
Monday 8 December 2008 saw police assess damage as daily schedules resumed and rioting subsided. However, all was not quiet, as all over Greece, several thousands of high school students walked out of their schools and marched on local police stations, throwing eggs, paint bombs, and water bottles. Protesters continued to occupy university campuses around the nation, while organizations such as the Communist Party of Greece announced plans for protests later that day. The massive demonstrations of that evening were confronted by police using tear gas; during the demonstrations, some 11 public buildings around the central plaza of Athens, Syntagma Square, were set on fire.
Students around Greece proceeded to occupy their school buildings, in protest, including in Serres, Imathia, Chalkidiki, Pieria, and Thessaloniki. The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the National Technical University of Athens, as well as the Athens University of Economics and Business remained under student occupation. Rioters also set fire to the Kostis Palamas building that led to the total destruction of the European Law Library situated at the corner of Akadimias and Sina street. After the fire, the rector of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Christos Kittas, resigned, but some days later withdrew his resignation.
A police report released Tuesday, 9 December 2008 in the morning put the numbers of injured police officers at 12, arrested rioters at 87, and persons who had been brought before a public prosecutor at 176. Some citizens began to act against the rioters, attacking people that were found looting and were seen throwing stones to protect their belongings. In the city of Patras, according to the city's mayor, members of far-left organizations took part in the violence. In Athens, seven police officers were injured, four rioters were arrested for violence against the police, 12 were arrested for theft and 55 were arrested for rioting with another 25 people of non-Greek nationality arrested for the same reason.
In a report on Tuesday, Amnesty International accused the Greek Police of brutality in handling the riots. The Greek department of Amnesty International canceled the scheduled celebrations on 10 December for the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in response to the police violence in Greece.
The crisis deepened on Wednesday 10 December 2008 when the General Confederation of Greek Workers (ΓΣΕΕ) and the Civil Servants' Confederation (ΑΔΕΔΥ), representing 2.5 million workers or roughly half of the total Greek workforce, called a one-day general strike in protest against the government's economic policies. Rioting continued in Athens as thousands of workers gathered for anti-government protests at Syntagma Square.
On Thursday, 11 December 2008 4,000 students marched against the police, with many protesters throwing firebombs at the officers.
On Friday, 12 December 2008 students attacked police outside the parliament building. Riot police fired tear gas in response. Heavy rain helped curtail demonstrations compared to previous days. The protests inspired small protests in some European cities, sowing fears of copycat riots elsewhere. On the same day, Greek police issued an appeal for more tear gas after supplies ran low, since more than 4,600 capsules of it were released against the protestors by that time.
On Saturday, 13 December 2008 large groups of demonstrators gathered in front of the Greek Parliament in central Athens. Despite the fact that the protest in front of the Greek parliament was relatively peaceful, the riot police attempted to dissolve it at 1:30 (local time) by using tear gas and violence. On the same day, about 100 protesters firebombed a police station near the Exarcheia district where Alexandros Grigoropoulos was killed.
On Sunday, 14 December 2008 students joined residents of the Exarcheia district to demand the renaming of that street in honour of the dead teenager. Also, at least four radio stations based in Athens were occupied by protesters. In Thessaloniki, students demonstrated in solidarity with all the people who were arrested as a result of rioting over the past week.