ATHENS – After openly snubbing a New Democracy ban on protests allegedly to hold down the spread of COVID-19, the organizers of a student protest that drew thousands of people against education reforms. 

The Athens Police Directorate is compiling a case file against them, said Kathimerini, for going against the prohibition against public gatherings of more than 100 people that doesn’t apply to shoppers or other areas.

They could also face charges of endangering public health, the report added, as well as heavy fines for the demonstration that was backed by the KKE Communists, the major rival SYRIZA also denouncing the ban.

The protesters don’t want security patrols on university grounds, a minimum standard to get into college and want the right to stay students all their lives without graduating.

Police investigators are said to be putting together a file of material to be sent to a First Instance Prosecutor, who is expected to order a preliminary investigation that could lead to police gathering evidence against the leaders.

It wasn’t said if that would be political leaders being targeted with critics of the ban saying Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was trying to stifle dissent against his government, already blamed for his handling of the pandemic.