Group handcuffs principal in Greece, suggests he be arrested for enforcing COVID-19 measures

A group of people handcuffed a principal in Greece and took him to a police station, saying he should be arrested for enforcing COVID-19 measures at his school.

The group, which calls itself the Guardians of the Constitution, believed officers would arrest the principal for violating the constitution once they brought him to the police station, The New York Times reported. Instead, officers arrested the 11 members of the group for alleged abduction of the principal, along with other lesser charges.

The group included nine men and two women, per the Times. Only three of them have children who attend the principal’s school.

The arrest comes a week after Greece’s government passed a law under which parents who keep their children out of school due to COVID-19 measures could face up to two years in prison, according to the Times.

Roughly 62 percent of people in Greece are fully vaccinated as the government continues to put measures in place to press individuals to get inoculated against COVID-19, per the Times.

In November, the Greek prime minister announced that those aged 60 or older who are not vaccinated will soon have to pay monthly fines.

“I felt a duty to stand by the most vulnerable, even if it might temporarily displease them,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said when announcing the measure.