Greek extremist right-wing party spokesman who slapped communist candidate on live TV sues
The spokesman of Greece’s extreme-right Golden Dawn party, who caused uproar last week by hitting one politician and throwing a glass of water over another during a live TV news program, is suing the two candidates and the television channel that hosted the show.
Ilias Kasidiaris, 31, appeared at an Athens court Monday to submit lawsuits against Communist Party candidate Liana Kanelli and Syriza party member Rena Dourou for unprovoked insult and against Antenna television for illegal detention.
Authorities had issued an arrest warrant for Kasidiaris after he slapped Kanelli three times across the face and threw water over Dourou during a live morning political discussion.
Greek extremist right-wing party spokesman who slapped communist candidate on live TV sues
The original story from last week:
Fascist on the run after TV assault
PROTESTERS across Greece have poured on to the streets, denouncing the ''dark force'' of fascism as the spokesman of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party eluded arrest after his extraordinary onscreen assault of two female left-wing politicians. A week before fresh general elections, the fault lines in Greek society are deepening.
On Friday night, as a police manhunt for Ilias Kasidiaris showed little sign of yielding a positive result, the divisions were on full display.
While anti-fascist demonstrators descended on public squares, Golden Dawn supporters crammed into a hotel in Athens to hear their leader, Nikos Michaloliakos, rail against immigrant ''scum'' and the corrupt and crooked system that brought the crisis-hit country to such a ''dark place''.
''There is growing polarisation. People are becoming increasingly radicalised thanks to all the rhetoric in the European Union and here against the anti-austerity leftist majority and that is opening the door for Golden Dawn,'' said veteran activist Petros Constantinou.
Mr Constantinou, who has spent years running an organisation that protects migrants, is convinced the police have facilitated Golden Dawn. ''Without police cover and protection Golden Dawn would not have survived,'' he said.
''How is it possible that a man can do what he did in a television studio and yet manage to get away and stay on the run after a state prosecutor has ordered his arrest? The police clearly don't want to arrest him.''
Dimitris Trimis, the head of the Greek journalists' association, agreed. In a nation where physical violence is rare - and public displays of violence against women even rarer - Kasidiaris' assault on Liana Kanelli and Rena Dourou, during a live TV debate of politicians representing the seven parties that won seats in the inconclusive May 6 election, had clearly shocked Greeks.
TV channels replayed footage showing Kasidiaris, a former army commando, lashing out at Ms Dourou first, hurling a glass of water in her face before turning his fists on Ms Kanelli.
But his ability to evade arrest was entirely plausible, said Mr Trimis. ''Suspicions of the collaboration between the police and Golden Dawn were confirmed at the ballot box in May,'' he said. ''As much as 50 per cent of the police force voted for the party.''
A police spokesman denied the accusations and said special units all over Greece were looking.
Golden Dawn is widely regarded as Europe's most fanatical neo-Nazi party.
