Photo credit: The Express Tribune
Authorities in Greece began investigating the death of a migrant in police custody on Friday.
Keerfa, an anti-fascist group which distributed the images, said 37-year-old delivery rider Mohamed Kamran Asik had been “tortured to death” inside an Athens police station after several days in detention.
Neos Kosmos reports that the investigations began after pictures of the man’s bruised body appeared online. Although the man’s nationality was not disclosed, he was identified as Pakistani in media reports.
The police said Asik had been detained on September 18 after trying to break into a block of flats in the Athens district of Agios Panteleimon after pursuing a woman and that he was already injured at the time and intoxicated.
In custody, he smashed a bathroom sink and got into a minor incident with other detainees, according to the police.
Asik’s family said the father of three, who had lived in Greece for the past 20 years, died on September 21 in a police detention area not covered by a camera.
Greece’s police minister, Michalis Chrysohoidis, said the police investigation would be supervised by the Greek ombudsman’s office “so that no shadows remain” over the case.
Greek police regularly face disciplinary procedures over alleged abuse that rarely result in punishment.
The Agios Panteleimon police station in Athens became notorious a decade ago for links to the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn which organized attacks on migrants in the area
