After the beating of a archaeologist in March blamed on builders, the Greek authorities had promised to toughen the tone in the face of the construction frenzy on the tourist islands. First manifestations of this desire to restore order, the Friday arrest of four people for illegal construction.
Thus, three people were arrested on Friday in Mykonos for having started building without a permit, and the work was stopped, the police said. In Rhodes, the owner of a tourist facility was arrested for having illegally occupied part of the beach with wooden and metal constructions.
“No more fraud possible”
In March, following a violent attack against an archaeologist carrying out work in Mykonos, the Greek Minister of the Environment promised to stop all illegal construction on this island which received two million tourists last year.
“The law will be respected in Mykonos,” declared Kostas Skrekas, affirming that there would no longer be any building permits outside the current urban areas. “No illegal project will be legalized afterwards. There will be no more possible fraud”, he had launched.
Archaeologist Manolis Psarros was beaten by unidentified gunmen outside his home in Athens on March 7. The Association of Greek Archaeologists, which assures that illegal construction on Mykonos is “completely out of control”, considered that the attack was probably sponsored by builders from Mykonos. The minister had promised that “the perpetrators of this mafia-type attack” would be punished.