Former Burundian cop seeks to become Greece’s first black MP
By Lasisi Kamoru
Kanempress
17th 2023
A former Burundian born policeman, Spiros Richard Hagabimana is seeking to become Greece’s first black member of parliament.
In the 21 May election, Hagabimana is contesting in the south-eastern Piraeus II electoral district under the conservative New Democracy party.
“Piraeus is the place where I studied, learned my first Greek words, worked and live. Through this area, I learned to love Greece,” one of Mr Hagabimana’s poll posters on Twitter reads.
The 54-year-old Hagabimana
said as a police office he was jailed in Burundi in 2015 for refusing to open fire on anti-government protesters.
He was later released from jail with the help of Greek authorities and returned to Athens in 2016.
Mr Hagabimana had first arrived in Greece in 1991 on a scholarship to study at the Naval Academy.
After his graduation in 1996 but he was forced to seek asylum in Greece as Burundi was still embroiled in a military coup.
Mr Hagabimana thereafter in 2005 received Greek citizenship and the same year, he returned to Burundi for peacekeeping efforts with the UN.
He says the colour of his skin should not be the focus in the upcoming elections , in Greece where migrants rarely hold public offices.
