MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP - GREECE

FREEDOM OF RELIGION IN GREECE: PERSISTENT INTOLERANCE

NGOs and all observers of the human rights scene in Greece welcomed Minister of Justice Mihalis Stathopoulos’ initiative to remove the entry on religion from Greek identity cards. The reform led to a protracted crisis in Greece with opposition to it led by the Orthodox Church. Though the government steadfastly repeats that the new identity cards will be used it has yet to introduce them. In the meantime, the Church of Greece has launched a petition drive to gather millions of signatures so as to pressure the government to back down or organize a referendum on the matter: the opposition leader himself publicly signed it.

More important reforms, pertaining to freedom of religion and related concerns, that need to be introduced include:

• Revision of the pre-war legislation on proselytism and operation of houses of worship in order to ensure the state’s neutrality towards the various creeds. Amendments of articles 175 and 176 of the penal code so as to abolish pretense of authority or wearing of unsanctioned religious uniform. Regulation of the legal status of the Catholic Church.

• Abolition of the punitive character of the conscientious objectors’ civilian service by considerably reducing its duration. Court convictions of objectors should be erased from their criminal record, as they obstruct the objectors’ professional advancement, as the ECHR has stipulated in this year’s conviction of Greece in the Thlimmenos case.

• Election of the management committees of the wakfs (promised before the elections by the Minister of the Interior). Thorough revision of the procedure for the selection of the muftis, which must be carried out in a way that will ensure the general acceptance of the Muslims. Mosques must be opened in areas where there is a considerable number of Muslims, throughout the country.

The European Court of Human Rights also convicted Greece for the case of Ibraim Serif on 14 December 1999. Mr. Serif was elected the Mufti of Komotini in 1990 by those attending Friday prayers at the mosques. He was subsequently convicted by a Greek court for pretense of authority because of messages he issued, and as he was wearing the mufti’s clothes. The Court held unanimously that there had been a violation of Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Here is a quote from the Court’s press release:

"In the Court’s view, punishing a person for the mere fact that he acted as the religious leader of a group that willingly followed him could hardly be considered compatible with the demands of religious pluralism in a democratic society. Moreover, the Court did not consider that, in democratic societies, the State needed to take measures to ensure that religious communities remained or were brought under a unified leadership. The Court recognized that it was possible that tension was created in situations where a religious or any other community became divided. However, it considered that this was one of the unavoidable consequences of pluralism. The role of the authorities in such circumstances was not to remove the cause of tension by eliminating pluralism, but to ensure that the competing groups tolerated each other."

 

Regrettably, Greek authorities decided to disregard this case-law, and continued in 2000 to prosecute the other elected mufti, Mehmet Emin Aga, with exactly the same charges, because he has issued some 50 messages to the Muslims on religious holidays, signing them as Mufti of Xanthi. To this day, First Instance Courts have convicted him to 139 months imprisonment. Appeal Courts have reduced the sentences of seven cases from 114 months to 69 months. Mr. Aga has spent six months in prison and has bought off the balance, at considerable financial cost.

It is important to mention that the then minority deputies appealed the rival appointments by the state of muftis in Xanthi and Komotini to the Council of State, in 1991 (MP Faik Faikoglu) and 1990 (MP Sadik Ahmet) respectively. For a whole decade, the country’s higher administrative court, in violation of Greek and international law and any sense of decency, has been postponing the hearing of the cases, year after year after year. It obviously hopes that in that way it will delay possible recourses to the ECHR

On another matter, on 13 June 2000, Hara Kalomoiri was convicted by an Appeals Court of Salonica to a suspended sentence of two months in prison for having operated, between September 1994 and March 1995, a house of worship without state license. The verdict refers to a residential center in Halkidiki (near Salonica and Mount Athos), whose Hara Kalomoiri was an administrator until 1995. The court inferred the building was a "temple of Buddhist cult" because its residents "engaged in Buddhist acts of cult, concretely … in meditation." Considering meditation as an act of cult is inadmissible, and certainly a violation of freedom of expression and of religion.