Almost a year ago, on June 26, we posted a video of a group of refugees handcuffed and duct-taped in the back of a van in Kos. The video immediately went viral on social media.
The Major of Kos, Theodosis Nikitaras, who is known to have a close connection to the police and coast guard on the island, went out immediately on a media spree to try to defend his “comrades”, claiming that it was fake news, made up by Aegean Boat Report.
He did not even bother to investigate the facts of the case, in a situation – we must remind you – in which video footage clearly showed people bound with tape, and blindfolded, in the back of a van.
The mayor’s astonishing response led to the headline in Kos’ local press: “I will sue the NGO that defames the island”.
Just to clarify, he never did file a lawsuit, even do he claimed to have done so. We cannot know for sure why he did not, especially having promised to the people of the island – to whom he owes his position and service – that he would. Perhaps he knew that we were in fact not lying, and was trying hard to shift focus from the facts.
We must note that this in itself, if it is the reason, would be a shocking dereliction of his duty: duties to the people of his island and to the wider community, which include ensuring that the uniformed officers of his region abide by their own rules, and national law, as well as not breaking international law and degrading the humanity of people within his territory.
An immediate and proper investigation was what any responsible mayor should have done. Theodosis Nikitaras did not carry one out.
Instead he tried to defend his friends in the coast guard, by attacking the messenger.
Fortunately, however, someone else did start an investigation into the incident: Frontex.
Oddly enough, when he became aware of this investigation, the mayor of Kos, Theodosis Nikitaras, stopped attacking Aegean Boat Report in the Greek press.
Once again, we stress that we can only speculate why Nikitaras decided to try to cover up this disturbing and serious incident, and why he saw no need to investigate acts his friends in the uniformed services were shown on video to be carrying out.
We firmly believe that the Mayor of Kos is fully aware of what is going on in his island, and that he deliberately tried to cover this up by attacking the organisation which published the video. We fear he did so because he wished to attempt to discredit and criminalize our organisation, and – perhaps most worrying from a Mayor – to mislead his constituency, the people of Kos.
Sadly, this seems to be the normal routine of any Greek officials whenever caught with their pants down. They deny, mislead and point the finger elsewhere. This has been the practice for years: taking responsibility and admitting any guilt seems never to be an option, even when they or those in their service are obviously guilty.
It is also important to note that the Frontex human rights office investigation (Serious Incident Report) into the incident, that we mentioned above, concluded by the end of last year, and was extremely clear in its findings:, is crystal clear:
Aegean Boat Report published the truth, and the incident certainly and incontrovertibly happened on Kos.
We believe it’s only fair that we try to shed as much light as we can on what has been the normal routine on Kos and the other Greek Aegean islands for years, by publishing in full the SIR from Frontex, so that people on Kos can make up their own minds, and see for themselves what a person their mayor really is. Link to full report in picture below.
Make no mistake, Theodosis Nikitaras knew that this was going on, but he deliberately lied and misled Kos’ and the wider Greek media, and Kos’ and the wider Greek public.
To Theodosis Nikitaras, Mayor of Kos, we say this:
We expect and demand that you finally issue an official apology to our organisation, Aegean Boat Report, for slandering and lying about us in the Greek press. You should make this public apology, in person and via the media you used to attack us, with the same enthusiasm as you delivered that unwarranted and attack.
The same apology should be given to the people of Kos, to whom you lied and tried to mislead.
The people of Kos know what has been going on in their island for many years, and Nikitaras, so do you.
We are afraid that your pretence it is not, shows your total lack of integrity and moral backbone.
We hope that the people of Kos use their power to select a more suitable person to lead them in the next election, a person who puts the interests of all in front of the interests of a few.
Corrupt and deceitful people have no place as leaders in a true democracy, unfortunately in Greece, under the guidance on the ruling party New Democracy, corrupt leaders seem to have become the rule, and not the exception.
Only the Greek people have the power to change this, and we hope they shall. Even if they do not, we demand and await your open, public apology to us for your open defamation of us, and denial of facts caught on camera.
To the people who was kidnapped, gagged and beaten, we say this:
We apologize, because we are responsible! We published the video that resulted in the beating from your captives, for this we are truly sorry!