A group of parents of the Dinamo supporters who were arrested in Athens after the 7 August deadly football violence, have called on Prime Minister Andrej Plenković to use his political influence to make sure that the arrested Croats have access to procedural rights and a fair trial.

The group of parents and family members on Sunday issued an appeal in which they request Prime Minister Plenković that he and the government immediately take necessary actions via diplomatic and consular networks so as that the arrested Dinamo fans could have access to procedural rights and warned that the safety of those arrested men has already been jeopardised during the ongoing investigation.

A court in Athens on Sunday decided on placing in custody all the 105 men, including 98 Croats, arrested after the 7 August football fan violence outside the AEK stadium in which an AEK supporter lost his life, Greek media reported on Sunday evening after all the arrestees were questioned by three magistrates.

According to the Greek media, the 105 arrestees will be held in 16 jails throughout Greece.

The families of the 98 detained Croatian fans also express fear that being thus separated in more groups and remanded in different jails, the Croats can be exposed to retaliation of other detainees.

Therefore the families appeal that the arrested Croatian should be kept together, isolated from other prisoners.

Otherwise, it is quite certain that the terrible and unnecessary loss of the life of the young Greek over whose death we express our deepest condolences, can lead to even a larger tragedy, the revenge of Greek fans and eventually to the escalation of the conflict, says the group of family members in their appeal.

We are fully aware that our family members have to be held to account for the actions they did. However, it is necessary to cease treating them as murderers, as according to the known facts they did not perpetrate that murder, the families say.

They expect the PM to contact his colleagues in Greece and in the European Union and to offer an exit from this “very worrisome and complicated international situation” which they call “a precedent.”

They also warn about the leak of personal data of some of the arrestees and say that it amounts to media campaign against those fans.

They say that in Greek media, names of Croatian supporters were published with the accusations that they were killers of the AEK fan, although it is not true.

Families urge Ombudsman to help protect the detainees against media hysteria

The parents of the detained Dinamo Zagreb fans have also called on Ombudsman Tena Šimonović Einwalter to take all the necessary steps to help the detained Croatians, noting that despite the presumption of innocence the ongoing media campaign in Greece was creating an impression that their children are murderers.

Those 98 Croats are facing 11 criminal and misdemeanor charges in connection with the fan violence in which the 29-year-old supporter of AEK liost his life, and three Greeks, an Albanian and a Croat are implicated in this murder.

The fight between fans broke out ahead of the UEFA Champions League third-qualifying-round match between hosts AEK Athens and Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb. The AEK supporter bled to death after he was stabbed with a sharp object, and a few more Greek and Croatian football fans were injured in that deadly brawl outside the Nea Philadelphia stadium.

Despite the UEFA’s ban on the away fans, it is still unclear how up to 120 Bad Blue Boys (BBB) fans of Dinamo managed to reach Athens without being stopped by the police, who were informed of the ban. Local media in Greece reported that an internal investigation would be launched after the law enforcement authorities failed to stop BBB members on their way to the stadium. Those fans are reported to have been accompanied by Panathinaikos supporters from a railway station in Athens in order to together attack AEK fans outside the Nea Philadelphia stadium.