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ANNOUNCEMENT OF ANTINAZI INITIATIVE

Under SYRIZA government she was promoted to President of the Court of Appeals and later on to a member of the Supreme Court. Now she is appointed vice-president of the Supreme Court by the New Democracy government.

OUST THE ANTISEMITE MARIANTHI PAGOUTELI FROM THE SUPREME COURT!

All those having played a leading role in the anti-Semitic acquitting decision over the Nazi K. Plevris became members of the Supreme Court under PASOK, SYRIZA-ANEL and ND governments.

The Antinazi Initiative denounces the promotion of the overt anti-Semite Marianthi Pagouteli, till yesterday a member of the Supreme Court, to the post of Vice-President of the Supreme Court by the Council of Ministers of the ND government. This is the highest position an overt anti-Semite has ever reached in the judiciary. The all too rotten in the case of anti-Semitism in our country is that M. Pagouteli’s promotions began under SYRIZA government in 2017, when she was promoted by the Judicial Council to President of the Court of Appeals, while in 2019 she was promoted anew to a member of the Supreme Court. Both promotions were made without the then SYRIZA government protesting them, although they ought to as the promotion of the anti-Semites by the judiciary itself, which is what happened then, is much more alarming for Democracy than having them promoted by the government, as happens today. This means that SYRIZA is now reacting not out of democratic principles but out of tactical considerations. The biggest proof that SYRIZA doesn’t care in the least about anti-Semitism and democracy is that previously, in 2015, the SYRIZA government had appointed Aspasia Karellou at the post of Vice-President of the Supreme Court. By acquitting K. Plevris, A. Karellou completed the judicial task M. Pagouteli had left unaccomplished and was then rewarded under G. Papandreou’s PASOK government with a promotion from President of the Court of Appeals to a member of the Supreme Court.
M. Pagouteli was the judge who gave a minority vote advocating for the acquittal of K. Plevris at the first instance trial at which the arch-Nazi K. Plevris was convicted for his nauseating, openly Hitler-praising libel “Jews: the whole truth”. It was in the reasoning of this minority opinion that M. Pagouteli blatantly supported Plevris’ anti-Semitic “argumentation”. But where M. Pagouteli failed, A. Karellou succeeded; that is she, as President of the Five-member Athens Court of Appeals, acquitted K. Plevris at second instance by a less provocative but essentially anti-Semitic reasoning. Later on, the Supreme Court made an historic breakthrough and adopted A. Karellou’s acquittal reasoning by validating the judgment of acquittal with a majority vote of 34-5 (the well-known Vassiliki Thanou, who was later appointed by SYRIZA as President of the Supreme Court, was amongst the 34). 
M. Pagouteli’s shamelessly horrific reasoning only just now became an issue for the public discourse, following all above promotions, and only for the policy needs of SYRIZA. It goes without saying that Karellou’s and the Supreme Court’s covered acquitting reasoning are still kept in the dark. We will see to it that the whole anti-Semitic stench of the country comes to light so as to prevent the anti-Semites of whichever party is in the opposition to selectively bring it out in order to get democratic credits abroad. 
So, on this occasion, everyone in our country but also in Europe should learn that we have a Supreme Court that has taken a stand favoring anti-Semitism, which could only be possible because the latter dominates the leadership of all parliamentary parties and is all too widespread at the base of society. Due to the enormous width of the middle class and the petit-bourgeoisie, modern genocidal anti-Semitism could be triggered off jointly by the anti-Semitism of the church and that of the Russophiles, who comprise the leaderships of pseudo-communists, pseudo-leftists and “Golden Dawn”-fascists of every coloring. M. Pagouteli’s ascension to the second highest office in the judiciary simply proves the dominance of anti-Semitism in our country, a truth which is meticulously concealed today basically due to the tactical alliance that the Greek state, including its anti-Semites too, has formed with Israel and the West.

We call upon our friends to study the basic facts of K. Plevris’ trial, facts that one may find in M. Pagouteli’s reasoning at the trial of 2007 where she tries to justify him.
It’s enough for one to pick whichever excerpt of the 32-pages-text to understand that no democratic state should ever appoint this certain judge not only as a vice-president of the supreme court but even as a simple civil servant. The informative note distributed by the Antinazi Initiative on the judges’ anti-Semitism as well as the open letter and call by the An.In. to denounce the acquittal, give a description of the most characteristic of them (http://www.antinazi.gr/english/notediki100412.htm, http://www.antinazi.gr/articles/dikiplevri/kampania/kampania2009_eg.htm), and the whole text is published here (*).  
But even if there remained a doubt that M. Pagouteli’s minority vote was an outright support for K. Plevris’ genocidal preaching, this doubt was dispersed when M. Pagouteli’s blog “Ziteitai elpis, mariannaonice” came to light after a journalistic investigation (by D. Psarras at Eleftherotypia). As a blogger and free from any limitations of her judicial office, but also on the wings of the final acquitting judgment, the appeal judge remarked in 2010: “Bloody Jews! I wish Hitler had exterminated them all!” K. Plevris was more cautious in his book. He wrote: “the history of mankind will blame him (it means Hitler) that while he was able to rid Europe of the Jews, he didn’t do that…”   

We also call upon the democrats to read the decision of K. Plevris’ acquittal by the Five-member Athens Court of Appeals in 2009 under the presidency of A. Karellou, who, as mentioned above, was made vice-chairman of the Supreme Court by SYRIZA. Later the Supreme Court approved the acquittal decision (**). This decision contains, among others, the claim that it’s not racist to blame the Jews for conspiring to impose the global Jewish dominance!!! It specifically mentions: “it follows that the defendant doesn’t turn against the Jews, only by reason of their racial and ethnic origin but basically by reason of their pursuit of global dominance, the methods they use to fulfill this pursuit and their conspiratorial activity”.
By this decision Greece has become the first anti-Semitic state in Europe with the seal of its supreme court. 

This same decision accepted that if a Nazi identifies himself/herself as a “Greek nationalist” he/she must be acquitted from the accusation of racism: “On principle, it must be noted that the defendant, according to the indefeasible right of every person to identify oneself, declares that he is a “Greek nationalist”, because he believes in Greek nationalism and doesn’t express alien nationalisms (such as Nazism is the manifestation of German nationalism and fascism the manifestation of Italian nationalism), and it’s in view of this ideological position of him that the reader of the controversial book must perceive what is referred to in it and especially the references to the holocaust of the Jews” (!)
All the judges that had a decisive role in Plevris’ acquittal were later rewarded by the political regime. So, in January 2017 An. Masoura, the attorney that had proposed K. Plevris’ acquittal at first instance and with whom Pagouteli had agreed, was also elevated from deputy prosecutor at the court of appeal to a public prosecutor at the same court.
As the Antinazi Initiative had condemned the anti-Semitic stance of the judges and especially A. Karellou’s stance, it has been prosecuted following a complaint of the acquitted K Plevris in 2009 for “distribution of false information” that “causes anxiety among the citizens”. This procedure didn’t achieve its purpose and the members of the An.In. were acquitted, because the atrocious political regime couldn’t condemn the anti-Nazis before the public opinion worldwide, while at the same time it so blatantly acquitted the Nazis that were taken to the court.
Twelve years after K. Plevris’ acquittal, it turns out it’s true what we had denounced then, that this acquittal had been prepared by all parliamentary parties, through their indirect or also direct support. In its long duration (from 2007 to 2010) the trial was concealed in silence, while no political cadre, no MP, no official trade-unionist, no official of the church of our country and especially no governmental organization of human rights, as such, condemned this acquittal. Later, those same governmental parties kept silent in front of the scandalous elevations of the anti-Semite judges or played a leading role in them.
Today, the call of Antinazi Initiative to intensify the struggle against the acquittal of Nazism has been proven.
As long as anti-Semitism, racism and Nazism become stronger within the judiciary and within the state, new persecutions for the democrats are coming.
We call upon the Minister of Justice and the government to annul M. Pagouteli’s appointment and revoke their decision. We also call upon the democrats of the whole country and the democrats of the whole Europe and the whole world to condemn the acquittal of the most brutal hitleric and genocidal anti-Semitism by the Greek Supreme Court. This shameful decision must be exposed before the planet and condemned by all European collective bodies.  
Athens, Sept. 4, 2022

*The acquitting reasoning of M. Pagouteli’s 32 pages here in pdf with our own notes and labeling
**a) The acquitting judgment of the Court of Appeals has been published here
http://elawyer.blogspot.com/2009/06/blog-post_23.html
b) The Supreme Court’s decision is published here:
http://www.areiospagos.gr/nomologia/apofaseis_DISPLAY.asp?cd=H9946F7BRL9LVHZJYRVYLEKBG78DDI&apof=3_2010