Nigerian immigrant dead, after being chased by policemen

Violent protests by fellow countrymen and antiracists in solidarity.

The state repression hasn't degraded at all, despite the upcoming elections and the hot summer. During the evening of Saturday 18th of August 2007, according reports, undercovered policemen were after the 25-year-old Tony Onouha, immigrant from Nigeria, who had been selling CDs in a cafe in Kalamaria, Thessaloniki.

Based on denouncements of his fellow countrymen, Tony Onouha, recognised those policemen as the ones who had beaten him up, one year ago. He tried to run away and finally fell from the first floor of the cafe, 5 meters height, to the street, where he died instantly.

Some reports say that the immigrant was pushed by the police officers. In any case, the death of Tony Onua is one more assassination by the state repression mechanism, the Hellenic Police.

Right after Onouha's death, his fellow countrymen had a vigil at the place of the incident. Some of them protested and had a conflict with the riot police and undercovered policemen who went there to suppress the protest. Roadblocks were set up and the riots kept on until Sunday 4am.

On Monday afternoon, 500 hundred people participated in demonstration including many people from the black community and people in solidarity, including the antiracist initiative of Thessaloniki, left and antiauthoritarian groups. When the march was in front of the Polce Department, the demonstrators threw a lot stones against the policemen.

The protests have been announced to go on the following days.