October 20, 2008	Monday	Shawwal 20, 1429

ATHENS: Police in Athens confirmed on Sunday that an investigation is taking place into allegations that officers had ordered a public strip search in a neighbourhood with a large immigrant

population.“Any officer who may be implicated in this affair will be subject to disciplinary sanctions,” said a Greek police headquarters statement following allegations by the newspaper Ethnos.

Under the headline “Guantanamo images in the centre of Athens” the paper showed six pictures of a man stripping in front of police officers under the gaze of passers-by earlier this month during an identity check.

“It is a case of extreme racism ... it is not a momentary mistake but the ordinary method used against immigrants,” the newspaper was told by a representative of an anti-war group one of whose members took the pictures.

Local media say the area around Omonia Square, with a large population of Nigerian, Afghan and Pakistani immigrants, has in recent years been turned into a ghetto where drug trafficking and prostitution by young African women have become “out of control”.—AFP