Greek police sergeant suspended after abuse video

ATHENS, June 17 (Reuters) A Greek police sergeant was suspended and his captain re-assigned after a video showing two Albanian detainees being beaten up at a central Athens police station appeared on Greek media.

The one-year-old video, which was first posted on the Internet and then picked up by TV stations this weekend, showed the sergeant ordering the two men to repeatedly slap each other and beating them with his baton.

''Those responsible will get an exemplary punishment,'' Public Order Minister Byron Polydoras said in a statement yesterday.

''The case is being sent to the public prosecutor.'' Human rights groups have reported several incidents of Greek police abuse, especially of immigrants or Roma (Gypsies) and the US State Department's human rights report listed several cases in its 2006 report on Greece.

Nearly two million immigrants, mainly from Eastern Europe, have sought a better life in Greece after the collapse of communism.

Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis expressed his shock at the latest incident, saying it offends the Greek state and tarnishes Greece's image.

The socialist opposition PASOK party accused the government of letting policemen involved in abuse cases go unpunished, creating a climate of impunity.

''The Greek citizen feels unprotected,'' PASOK spokesman Petros Efthymiou said. ''Mr Karamanlis should assume complete political responsibility instead of just expressing his displeasure.'' Greek media reported that the 30-year-old sergeant who joined the police force in 1996, told investigators that he and his colleagues at the central Omonia police station ''were just joking around''.

REUTERS SW KP1734