‘They want to shut me up’: Norwegian activist fights 20‑year Greek prison threat over asylum aid
by https://euobserver.com/author/nikolaj-nielsen/ · EUobserver‘I can’t travel anywhere without being arrested, so I am kind of stuck in Norway for the unseeable future,’ says Tommy Olsen (Photo: Tommy Olsen)
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By Nikolaj Nielsen,
Brussels
,
Two human rights defenders are facing a Greek court in Rhodes and 20 years in jail over allegations they belong to a criminal organisation.
The hearing targets Norwegian activist Tommy Olsen and Panayote Dimitras, a legal administrator and representative of the NGO Greek Helsinki Monitor.
“They want to shut me up because what I’ve been doing over the last six to seven years is revealing their wrongdoings,” Olsen told EUobserver on Monday (5 October).
The hearing, which is taking place on Tuesday, is years in the making, following repeated attempt by Greek authorities to punish the pair for helping people seek asylum on the island of Kos in 2021.
Both deny any wrongdoing and Amnesty International earlier this year said the two were being prosecuted for their human-rights work of documenting serious rights violations.
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‘I can’t travel anywhere without being arrested, so I am kind of stuck in Norway for the unseeable future,’ says Tommy Olsen (Photo: Tommy Olsen)
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Author Bio
Nikolaj Nielsen joined EUobserver in 2012 and covers home affairs. He is originally from Denmark, but spent much of his life in France and in Belgium. He was awarded the King Baudouin Foundation grant for investigative journalism in 2010.
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