European Commission asks for more information about conviction of Greek language activist

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Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 08:23:11 +0300 (EEST)
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Subject: European Commission asks for more information about conviction of Greek language activist

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: John Walsh <[email protected]>

European Commission asks for more information about conviction of
Greek language activist


Brussels 14/5/01 by John Walsh & Johan Häggman (EUROLANG)

The European Commission is to ask the Greek government for more
information about the recent conviction of a language activist.

In February, Sotiris Bletsas of the Aroumanian minority was sentenced
to fifteen months in prison, suspended for three years.

His lawyer said that he had been convicted of 'disseminating false
information' under Article 191 of the Greek Penal Code.

Bletsas was first arrested in 1995 after distributing publications of
the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages (EBLUL) at a meeting of
the Aroumanian community in central Greece. The publication mentioned
the existence of the Aroumanian language.

In response to a question from the European Parliament, the European
Commissioner for Education and Culture, Viviane Reding, said the
Commission considered the case to be 'of great importance' but could
not respond exhaustively due to a lack of information.

'Therefore, it has asked the Greek government to send it a copy of the
sentence as soon as possible, along with any other information
relevant to the case', Commissioner Reding added.

The question was asked by two members of the European Parliament's
Green/Free Alliance group.

Welsh MEP, Eurig Wyn, and Basque MEP, Gorka Knörr Borràs, asked the
Commission if it considered that the sentence was 'compatible with
European values of freedom of expression and opinion and of cultural
and linguistic diversity'.

Article 191 of the Greek Penal Code has already been found to be
violation of the European Convention for Human Rights, and has
criticised by human rights groups such as Amnesty International and
the International Helsinki Federation.

The Hellenic League of Human Rights and the European Bureau for Lesser
Used Languages have also expressed concern at the sentence. 

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