Hellenic Police

Greece's police force has "enormous potential, as long as it is used correctly," a retired high-ranking officer of the Hellenic Police (ELAS) said on TV the other day. That "correct use" is what seems so elusive.

In the aftermath of the deadly riots on Monday evening by Croatian hooligans who descended on the Greek capital on the eve of Tuesday's Champions League qualifier between AEK Athens and Dinamo Zagreb, more than one source has told Kathimerini that from the electronic mail system of the Hellenic Police (ELAS), it seems that the officers of the regional services either read an order calling on th

Greece's conservative government seems to be stumbling from crisis to crisis, bearing the consequences of the inertia and inadequacy within certain sectors of the state machinery. 

Τhe four Greeks out of the 98 people arrested in connection with the fatal hooligan clashes in Nea Filadelfia in western Athens were released on Tuesday, with a verbal order of the prosecutor. All four were injured, and three of them have given statements to the Sub-Directorate for Combating Sports Violence. The fourth man was until late Tuesday still unable to give a statement.

Investigations are under way to determine how an estimated 100-120 Croatian hooligans traveling on buses and in cars made their way to Athens from Zagreb on Monday and engaged in deadly clashes with local soccer fans despite a ban on supporters traveling to Greece for a match between Dinamo Zagreb and home team AEK on Tuesday.

A 61-year-old woman from Serres that had been missing since July 30 was found dead on Friday. The body was located by a local near a stream in the area. Six firefighters and two vehicles retrieved the woman's body.

According to the Hellenic Police, there is no evidence of foul play in the death of the woman, who suffered from dementia.

The 32-year-old Bangladeshi accused of raping and murdering 27-year-old Anastazja Rubinska on the island of Kos last week has been detained pending trial.

Appearing before an investigative magistrate on Wednesday for three hours, he reportedly denied the charges.

The financing for the renewal of the term of office of 800 fixed-term border guards in the eastern Aegean has been decided by the managing authority of the Migration Ministry.

The move aims to strengthen the operational capacity of the Hellenic Police for the protection and surveillance of the country's external borders.

The genetic material found in a car containing heavy weaponry in the Neos Kosmos district of Athens last week has been identified by the Hellenic Police (ELAS) as belonging to the two victims of a mafia attack in Korydallos on June 7.

Vassilis Roubetis, 38, and his brother-in-law Dionysis Mouzakitis, 31, were fatally shot in an ambush linked to ongoing gang rivalries.

Five police officers accused of cooperating with human traffickers to facilitate the entry of at least 100 migrants into Greece are being held in custody pending trial.

The five officers had been testifying before an examining magistrate since Saturday morning at the border town of Orestiada, in northeastern Greece.