Dimitras:“I am not aware of any such action to date”
Greek Helsinki Monitor spokesperson Panayote Dimitras, issued a press release regarding the articles published about him and the NGOs representing.
The statement by Dimitras is as follows:
“Statement by Panayote Dimitras (31/5/2023)
Regarding today's media articles on some report of the Anti-Money Laundering Authority, I state that, for starters, I am not aware of any such action to date.
As for the alleged funding for the support of human rights that is allegedly allocated for other purposes, such funding is non-existent.
The only funded program concerns the fight against hate speech and is posted by the funding European Commission (see screenshot below of https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/5dcc2a40-785d-43f0-b806-f065386395de_en).
This is therefore a continuation of the smear campaign against me, which it should be recalled has been repeatedly denounced by both the Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe (https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/greek-authorities-should-reverse-the-trend-undermining-the-work-of-human-rights-defenders-and-journalists) as well as the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders and Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants (https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=27791).
As I have already stated publicly, these prosecutions are a form of retaliation for denouncing pushbacks (https://racistcrimeswatch.wordpress.com/2022/12/30/2-356/).”