Nassos Karakitsos
Nassos Karakitsos is migrant rights defender who worked with the now-defunct Emergency Response Center International (ERCI) between 2016 and 2018. In August 2018, Nasso was arrested for his humanitarian work and spent 106 days in pre-trial detention. The charges made against him include money laundering, espionage and assisting illegal smuggling networks. The case remains ongoing and he faces 25 years imprisonment.
Human rights defenders (HRDs) in Greece have faced an increasingly hostile environment since the refugee crisis in Europe intensified in 2015. HRDs and independent journalists working on the rights of minorities, and those providing humanitarian assistance to migrants and asylum seekers in Greece, are the main targets of persistent acts of harassment and intimidation.
HRDs have been exposed to abuse of power by law enforcement agents and special police forces, including arbitrary restrictions to freedom of movement and the right to privacy, and HRDs have also been verbally and judicially harassed, threatened, preventively detained, interrogated, and had their apartments and belongings searched and/or confiscated.
