Wednesday, November 20, 1985

Polytechnic occupation for the murder of Michalis Kaltezas

Polytechnic University occupation for the murder of Michalis Kaltezas, started immediately after Kaltezas' death on the 17th of November 1985, and coninued for the following days with large numbers joining the protests. Athens, Greece. 19/11/1985.

Stournari and Patission corner. Crowds are not allowed to approach Polytecnic University

Stournari and Patission corner. Crowds are not allowed to approach Polytecnic University

Rioters inside Polytechnic University occupation

Inside Polytechnic University occupation with large participation of people

Inside Polytechnic University occupation with large participation of people

Stournari and Patission corner. Crowds are not allowed to approach Polytecnic University

Rioter inside Polytechnic University occupation

Rioters inside Polytechnic University occupation

Riots in Patission and Stournari corner



Michalis Kaltezas (1970 – November 17, 1985) was a student who was killed during the demonstrations on the anniversary of the uprising of the Polytechnic University of Athens in 1985. The police officer Athanasios Melistas shot Michalis Kaltezas in the back of the head from a distance of twenty meters while the youth was running with other demonstrators away from the cops towards Exarcheia Square.
Immediately after Kaltezas’ death, the old Chemical School on Solonos Street and the Polytechnic University were occupied.
On the morning of the 18th, permission was given from the Committee of University Asylum, with president Michalis Stathopoulos, for the police to enter the old Chemical School. The police invasion took place with the use of tear gas, for the first time after 1976, and the police arrested 37 people who were beaten. About 20 of the protestors managed, via the underground sewers, to get to the group occupying the Polytechnic University. Demonstrations and riots in Athens continued during the following days.

After the events, the minister of public order Menios Koutsogiorgas and the undersecretary Athanasios Tsouras submitted their resignations, which the prime minister at the time, Andreas Papandreou (of the nominally left-wing party PASOK), did not accept.

Melistas was sentenced to two and a half years of prison with a suspended sentence. At the appeals court level, with lawyer Alexandros Lykourezos, his conviction was overturned on January 1, 1990, since the court recognized as a mitigating factor that his action was “in the heat of passion”. This action by the court caused new serious episodes.
(Based on the article on el.wikipedia.org)

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