Political refugee from Turkey in risk of deportation

greece / turkey / cyprus | repression / prisoners | news report Thursday December 24, 2009 22:00 by ORA MIDEN

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Political refugee from Turkey in risk of deportation

Early today the Turkish political refugee Ridvan Celik (Rido), who has been claiming political asylum in Greece since 1991, was put on a plane from Crete to Athens by the police, Rido who was persecuted by the Turkish Military for refusing to join the army and fight the Kurdish rebels fled to Greece in 1991 and since then has filed political asylum applications twice. Rido was arrested on December 6, 2009, when riot police attacked a group of 20 comrades who were on the road for the rally point of the march to commemorate the completion of one year since the murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos and the rebellion that followed. Until today morning he had been detained at the Heraklion police headquarters. The mobilisation for his release and the reinitiation of political asylum processes did not bear fruit. Apparently this secret transport to Athens and the day the Greek state chose for it (24 Dec) means that they intend to deport without creating much fuzz.