Arrested in Athens: 24 hours to the investigating judge

Decisions you face before the investigating judge

The initial decision is about silence. Police in Athens will ask for an account, and an officer may say that cooperating will help. What you say becomes part of the file, and a statement made without a defender and with an interpreter of unknown quality may be used against you later. Waiting for a lawyer may cause a delay at the station and a colder reception; speaking at once may produce an account you would not have given with advice. You cannot take it back once given.

The next decision is whether to ask for a defender of your own or to accept the one provided. You have the right to a lawyer and to an interpreter, but the lawyer provided may meet you only moments before the hearing. Choosing your own takes effort at a bad time, since someone in Italy or at home must find, brief and pay a lawyer in another country. The trade is between a prepared defender and a convenient one.

A further decision concerns the hearing itself. You can ask for time to prepare, which may extend the period before the judge decides, or you can proceed at once, which is faster but leaves less time to gather documents showing roots and ties. Showing that you have a home, a family and a job is one of the strongest arguments against detention, and it takes paper to prove it.

Finally, choose who tells your consulate. Notification is available on request, and it brings a visit and a list of local lawyers. It does not bring a defence.

Who comes to this page and why

A mother has had a telephone call from a son in Athens who said only that he had been arrested and could not say more. She has a city, a name and a guess about which police office, and she needs to know who to call and what happens in the next day.

A different reader is the traveller, newly released, or waiting in a cell for the hearing, who has been told that the investigating judge decides and is trying to understand what that actually means. The words are unfamiliar, the interpreter is a stranger, and there is a feeling that something important is being decided without being explained.

A further reader is an Italian living or working in Greece who has received a summons or learned that an Italian warrant exists. For them, the question is whether Greece will hand them over, whether the Greek courts will hold them first, and whether an Italian defender can help. The route is different from an ordinary arrest, because a surrender request brings its own hearings and its own arguments.

All of these readers need to know the same thing at once: the clock is running, a judge will decide soon, and what is said and signed in the meantime matters more than people expect. The rest of this page takes them through that.

What changes for you and your family when the clock starts

The earliest consequence is that nobody knows where you are. Greek law requires that you be brought before the investigating judge within a short, fixed period, but in the hours before that, you may be moved between stations and offices, and relatives telephoning the wrong one are told nothing. A parent, a spouse or an employer may spend a day searching.

For a visitor, the holiday or business trip is over. Ferries to the islands, flights home, a car left in a car park, a hotel with luggage inside: each is a small crisis that needs someone outside to resolve. Ask a trusted person to cancel what can be cancelled and to rescue what has value, but not to explain the arrest to anyone beyond the people who truly need to know.

For a resident or a worker in Greece, the effects spread. An employer may suspend you pending the outcome. A landlord or a bank may react to news of an arrest as if it were a conviction. Children need to be collected from school by someone with the authority to do so, and a household that relies on a single income has to find a way to pay rent and bills when the earner cannot.

The judge's decision brings its own changes. Release with conditions can mean reporting to a police station, surrendering a passport or staying in a particular area, each of which affects work and travel. Detention means weeks of uncertainty. Whichever way the decision goes, plan for the next few weeks, not just the next few hours, and write down who is responsible for what.

What not to do in the hours before the hearing

The danger in these hours is well-meant action. Avoid these and understand why.

• Do not sign what you cannot read. A signed paper may be treated as an agreed statement, whatever you thought you were signing.
• Do not talk about the case with officers, other detainees or interpreters. None of them owes you confidentiality, and any of them can be called to repeat what you said.
• Do not discuss the facts on the telephone with relatives. Calls and visits may be listened to.
• Do not post anything on social media or in messaging groups, even to reassure friends. It is read by the authorities and by the other side.
• Do not delete messages or files. It looks like concealment and can be used to argue that you would interfere with the investigation.
• Do not contact a complainant or witness to settle or apologise. It may be used as a reason to detain you.
• Do not rely on the idea that nationality will help. The protection applies to everyone alike, and so does the procedure.
• Do not give an account you cannot repeat identically. Changes of story do more harm than silence.

Every one of these closes a door that a defender may need.

Papers and facts a lawyer needs from you

Collect what you can and photograph it, leaving originals where they are.

• Passport or identity card, scanned in full, and any residence or work papers in Greece or Italy.
• The time and place of the arrest, as precisely as you can, because every period that matters is measured from it.
• Every paper given to you by officers, in the original language, photographed in full. A verbal summary is not enough.
• Proof of roots and ties: a lease or hotel booking, an employment letter, a family record, a tax paper, anything that shows why you would stay and answer the case.
• Travel documents: tickets, itineraries, rental agreements, and messages that explain why you were where you were.
• Phone and account details that you can safely share with the lawyer, and the knowledge of what has been seized.
• Names of witnesses and companions, with their contact details if you have them.
• Medical records and medicines, particularly if you depend on a prescription.
• Any Italian paper, such as a summons, a warrant or a notice, that might connect to the arrest.

List what is missing as well. A short honest list lets the lawyer plan the argument for the hearing and helps relatives know what to send.

When Greece and Italy are both involved

Cases between Greece and Italy often carry paper from both sides. A visitor's home documents, a company's records, a bank statement, a marriage certificate or a prior judgment may be in Italian and needed in Greek, or the other way round. Courts accept translations only if they come from a qualified translator, and some documents also need a formal certificate that they are genuine. Begin gathering originals now, because the process is slower than the hearing allows.

Time matters in practical ways. Greek offices and Italian ones keep similar hours, but a request made late in the day is rarely dealt with until the next, and weekends and public holidays stop everything. The post between the countries is too slow for custody matters, so scans go in parallel and originals follow.

Defenders have to speak to each other. A Greek lawyer knows the court, the judge and the procedure; an Italian lawyer knows the Italian file and can say whether an Italian measure or investigation exists. They should agree on one account of the facts and divide the tasks: who speaks to the court, who prepares documents, who talks to the family. Contradictory statements to different authorities are the most avoidable source of damage.

The consulate can confirm that you are held, visit you, check on conditions and pass messages to family. It cannot take part in the case, and it does not pay for a lawyer. Ask it for what it can give, and look to a defender for everything that touches the file.

How the studio handles an arrest in Athens

Call or write using the details on this page. The Rome, Milan and Naples offices all take these calls, and the language of the conversation can be Italian or English. Start with who is arrested, when and where, and what papers exist. If you cannot say, send photographs of whatever you have and we will read them and explain what they are.

An arrested person in Greece needs a lawyer who can appear before the Greek judge, and the studio works with correspondents there. Our part is to explain to the family and the person held what is happening, to establish whether an Italian proceeding or warrant is involved, to coordinate with the Greek defender, to prepare documents on roots and ties that can be translated, and to handle the Italian side of the case.

The appointment is in writing, signed by the person concerned or, where that is impossible, by a family member on their behalf, and fees are explained before work starts. The initial conversation covers facts and priorities, not reassurance. Send documents as clear scans, labelled by date, with a line saying what each one is. The studio remains reachable outside office hours for urgent developments, because the period before the judge is short and decisions arrive when they arrive. At each stage we tell the family what has been done and what must happen next.

Questions to put to a lawyer about the Greek procedure

These are questions that are rarely asked by anyone outside the profession, and the answers decide what you do next.

• Which investigating judge has the case, and what is the file likely to show on the day?
• What will the prosecution argue for: detention or release with conditions, and why?
• What proof of roots and ties will matter most to this judge, and how fast can it be produced?
• Will I have the lawyer I choose at the hearing, and if not, who will be there and what will they know?
• How is the interpreter chosen, and can I object if the translation seems wrong?
• If the judge sets conditions, what exactly are they and what happens if I cannot meet them?
• Is any Italian warrant or proceeding connected, and does that change what we say?
• Can the decision be challenged, by whom, and how fast?
• What do I tell my employer, family and bank, and what do I leave out?

If you do not understand an answer, ask again. A good defender explains the file, the options and the cost of each in a way you can repeat to your family, and you should finish each call knowing what happens next and who is responsible for doing it.

The expressions you will see on Greek papers

A small number of terms recur in these cases, and knowing them lowers the fear.

• Investigating judge. The judge to whom you must be brought after arrest. The judge hears you, reads the file and decides whether you are detained or released with conditions.
• Detention. You stay in custody on grounds the judge accepts, until the next decision.
• Release with conditions. You leave, but must meet obligations such as reporting or staying in an area. Failing them can lead to a new arrest.
• Constitutional protection. The point that the time limit before the judge comes from the foundation of the legal system, so it is not a courtesy and does not depend on nationality.
• Foreign nationals. People arrested who are not Greek. They receive the same protection, including the right to a lawyer and an interpreter.
• EU directives implemented. European rules on lawyers, interpreters and information that Greece has put into its own law. They are why you may ask for an interpreter.
• Consular notification. The right, on request, to have your country told of the arrest. It brings contact, not a defence.

If a word on your papers is not here, photograph it and ask. Do not guess.

Keep a short glossary of your own as the papers arrive, with the word, the date on which you met it and the explanation your lawyer gave. Relatives who read the documents later, and any interpreter who is brought in, will then use the same words that you do, and nothing will be lost between languages.