Another Roma Boy Dies In Police Chase

Most of the mourners at the funeral were teenagers. Christos Michalopoulos’s classmates, friends, and family gathered outside a church near the central Greek city of Thebes to bid farewell to the 17-year-old who died during a police chase on November 11.

Dressed in black, they clung to each other in silence, some in tears.

The air hung with a sense of shock. Several family members appeared lightheaded. Some fainted and had to be held upright or taken away for medical care.

When the bier was carried out of the church, a small crowd chanted his name as though answering his name on a school attendance register: “Christos Michalopoulos! Present!”

Michalopoulos died with a bullet lodged in his clavicle after being pursued by officers, marking the third time in less than three years that a Roma teenager has been killed in incidents involving Greek police.

Since that fateful Saturday, there have been protests, calls for justice and clashes with police across the country.

Michalopoulos’s loved ones say police killed him, a claim that has not been confirmed by the Hellenic Police service.

Amnesty International has called for a “prompt, thorough, transparent and effective investigation into the latest incident as well, including an investigation into a possible discriminatory motive”.

On November 16, an accused police officer who has not been named, gave his initial testimony in Thebes.

JAZEERA