He described that he was lying on the ground when he surrendered himself to the officers, who nevertheless started hitting him with sticks and their hands, and also kicked him.

The respondent is a 23-year-old Moroccan man. He reported walking from Istanbul to Thessaloniki together with two other people, another person from Morocco and one from Palestine.

The group had walked for one night from the town of Kavala (North Eastern Greece) and was apprehended by three people they identified as Greek police officers between 11 PM and 12 AM, on September 25th, when they were resting for dinner beside the road. The respondent couldn't remember the exact location of the incident.

He described that they saw the officers arrive in a police car and tried to run away. While the other members of his group managed to escape (their whereabouts were still unknown by the respondent at the time of the testimony), the respondent himself was stopped by tree branches. He described that he was lying on the ground when he surrendered himself to the officers, who nevertheless started hitting him with sticks and their hands, and also kicked him.

According to the respondent, the officers were swearing at him during the attack and repeatedly yelled: “Go back to Turkey! Go back to Istanbul!”. They reportedly emptied his bag with his phone, power bank, jacket, other clothes, and a small amount of money into the nearby river. The respondent reported suffering several injuries from the incident. The back of his head was swollen, he had several wounds on his arms, legs, as well as on his face, and also lost a tooth.

 According to the respondent, the officers eventually stopped hitting him and left him where they had apprehended him. The respondent then waited until he regained consciousness, cooled his face in the river, and, despite his wounds, kept on walking for another three days until he arrived in Thessaloniki on September 28th in the morning.