Official figures record two anti-Semitic crimes, including the desecration of a Jewish cemetery by unidentified perpetrators and damage to a synagogue.
The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece reported 13 cases of vandalism, including the desecration of cemeteries, synagogues and Holocaust memorials in January 2009. The Greek Helsinki Monitor reported an arson attempt on a synagogue and two cases each of the vandalization of a synagogue, a Jewish cemetery and a Holocaust memorial. The Stephen Roth Institute reported three violent incidents.
The Western Thrace Minority University Graduates Association reported three arson attacks and the desecration of a cemetery. The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe reported three assaults, two arson attacks (one against a mosque) and five acts of vandalism (two of mosques and three of memorial sites).
UNHCR reported almost daily incidents targeting Afghan, Iraqi and Pakistani refugees. The Group of Lawyers for the Rights of Immigrants and Refugees, an NGO, reported to UNHCR that an Afghan national was hospitalized with stab wounds after an assault that was alleged to have been bias motivated. The Greek Council for Refugees reported to UNHCR the beating of an Afghan asylum seeker and threats made against an Afghan refugee. An allegedly bias-motivated attack on an Arab community was also reported.
UNHCR reported one act of anti-Muslim vandalism.
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) strongly encouraged the authorities in Greece to “combat racist crimes more actively”. It also expressed concern about anti-Semitism.
In Greece, in May 2009, a police officer allegedly defaced an extract of the Koran during an identity check on an Iraqi man. This led to demonstrations by the Muslim community that degenerated into violent clashes with the police. More than ten people were injured, dozens of cars were badly damaged and 46 people were arrested. In the two days following the protests, an unidentified group of people in Agios Panteleimonas set fire to a building used for prayer by the Muslim community. UNHCR reported that “members of extreme-right organizations and some local residents abused human rights activists”. The playground in Agios Panteleimonas where Afghan mothers used to go with their children was closed and immigrants have since been kept out of the square by local squads of vigilantes. A Greek flag has been raised inside the closed playground.