Athens, Greece: Protesters Firebomb Main City Courthouse
PROTESTERS attacked Athens' main courthouse with firebombs during a hearing for police officers whose shooting of a teenager set off rioting that appeared to be tapering off yesterday even as a general strike paralyzed the country.
The strike shut down schools, public services, hospitals and flights, increasing pressure on the fragile conservative government of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.
The police involved in the fatal shooting were testifying behind closed doors when youths hurled Molotov cocktails at the courthouse and smashed a television satellite truck. Riot police fired tear gas. At least two people were hurt.
Riot police and youths also clashed in the city center during a demonstration by more than 10,000 people to protest the conservative government's economic policies. But outbreaks of fighting were smaller and less widespread than in previous days, an indication that the most violent nationwide unrest Greeks have seen in years may be ending.
The demonstrations and the strike called by Greece's two largest labor unions - umbrella groups that include virtually all public-sector and many private employees - were scheduled before the riots broke out. They were fueled, however, by anger at the handling of the riots by the government, which holds a single-seat majority in the 300-member parliament.
"This country is not being governed. The government can no longer convince anyone," senior Socialist party member Evangelos Venizelos said in Parliament. "There is no way Mr Karamanlis can come back from this."
The policemen's lawyer Alexis Cougias told reporters that a ballistics examination showed that 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos was killed by a ricochet and not a direct shot. One of the officers had claimed he had fired warning shots and did not shoot directly at the boy. That officer is charged with murder; the other is accused of acting as an accomplice.
"Unfortunately this tragedy is the result ... of an act by the policeman to fire into the air. The bullet ricocheted, we have an entry wound from above," Cougias told reporters.
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