As politics follows and responds to the social dynamics, political parties tend to use criminal cases that have gained popularity to promote certain points and objectives of their party programs with the aim of attracting voters during a political campaign. A relevant example is the case of Manolis Kantaris murder. A far-right political formation used the case in its campaign, characterised by propaganda of fascist ideas, nationalism, and violent demonstrations. The fact that the accused persons of the murder were from Afghanistan and Pakistan was used to incite hatred and intolerance towards foreign nationals living in Greece. The culmination of events was the organisation of riots that injured dozens of migrants and even caused the death of a young migrant from Bangladesh. Similarly, in Italy, a public outcry emerged over the murder of Pamela Mastropietro where the accused was a Nigerian national. The case was broadly covered by the media and had a strong societal impact. It has led to two major consequences: a xenophobic raid and an exploitative use of it during the political campaigns for the forthcoming general elections in 2018.

Impact on social processes and the broader political situation

The case of Katerina, one of the cases of HIV positive women made an impact going beyond the personal lives of the accused women and their families, to Greek society at large and even at the international level. The case is characterised with a serious violation of the right to privacy and medical confidentiality of a vulnerable group of HIV positive women. The solidarity movement that emerged in support of the accused women involved international and national organisations, together with a large part of the population and human rights institutions as the Ombudsman. A wide public debate unfolded on the delicate balance between disclosure of information made on the grounds of public health concerns and the protection of fundamental human rights such as human dignity founded in the European legal civilisation. Part of the debate focused on the role of the media and its practices for delivering such information to the public. The Association of Editors of Athens condemned the publication of photographs by newspapers, TV channels, and websites, which “contributed to the public humiliation of certain women, violating blatantly the code of ethics and the professional morality of journalists”. Furthermore, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) issued a press release expressing its concern over the actions of Greek authorities involving the arrest, detention, mandatory HIV testing, publication of photographs and personal details, and the pressing of criminal charges against the women. In addition, the famous case was analysed from a political perspective. The women were arrested within an operation for combating the “the increased AIDS rates due to illegal prostitution and illegal immigrants” launched by the minister of health. The analysis indicates that citizens who criticised the illegal disclosure of information by public authorities considered their actions a “pre-electoral witch hunt”. This demonstrates that the presumption of innocence, among a number of other rights, might be violated as result of pursuing political objectives.

Lastly, social media and networks provide platforms for many people to express their opinion on current events, including criminal proceedings exposed in media, and even to form activist movements and groups. Movements organised through social media usually expand rapidly. It is noteworthy that social networks create a favorable environment for the expression and dissemination of radical views, including such pertaining to the two sides of a criminal case – the offense or the defence. The more people are involved, the more influence and social pressure on the legal process is imposed. The cases studies show that social movements may take the form of hashtags, groups, discussions, etc. The conviction for sexual abuse in the Herd case instead of one for rape aroused great indignation that was translated into social media campaigns through hashtags such as #noesno or #yositecreo. There were 466,864 posts on Twitter related to the conviction only in three hours.

The criminal cases that attract high attention in media may bring certain issues onto the public and political agenda. The examined case studies provided indicative examples of the impact on society and the political processes in the respective countries. Some cases that touch upon existing social problems, such as migration, discrimination, or radicalisation, usually disturb the public and generate turbulent reactions that can evolve into raids, protests, and demonstrations. That was observed in the murder of Manolis Kantaris at Athens city center where the accused persons were foreign nationals. In light of the then topical issue of immigration in the country, the memorial march organised by the local community to honour the victim turned into a protest against the growing number of immigrants in the district whose presence instilled insecurity and fear among the locals.

The first demonstration was of an Italian citizen who was strongly affected by the murder case and decided to take the law into his own hands by opening fire on a group of random dark-skinned individuals of African descent. In the moments following his arrest, the perpetrator stated that his initial intentions were to go to court and murder the accused person for the Pamela Mastropietro case, but he changed his mind and decided “open fire at random black people.” Later it was revealed that the shooter was involved in a right-wing political party that criticised and condemned immigration and actively contributed to the politisation of the issue in

Italy. Immigration was a central topic of the general elections campaign and the case study analysis pointed out the process of securitisation of the issue of migration and the exploitative use of the criminal case during the campaign. Far-left politicians used the case to spread the message that illegal immigrants are an existential threat to society and promised to adopt extraordinary and arbitrary measures, such as the repatriation of 600,000 illegal immigrants. Subsequently, the election results showed a rise from 0.69% to 17.4% of the votes for the far-left compared to the previous elections. Furthermore, the accused person for the Sotirya murder case was of Roma ethnicity and the case was used by Bulgarian far-right political parties to gain political benefits. The perceptions of Roma people as criminals is particularly widespread among Bulgarians. Politicians from a far-right political party, VMRO, spoke publicly about the murder case not only to strengthen such stereotypes, but to incite tension and division between ethnic Bulgarians and Roma communities. Members of VMRO also made the radical proposal for amendments of the Penal Code to introduce chemical castration to people sentenced for pedophilia. There is no information whether an official proposal was submitted to parliament, so it could be assumed that these statements sought to attract the support of voters that may find the radical measures appealing. Another example could be found in the sexual harassment in the Herd case where the public outrage provoked by it was also translated into numerous demonstrations throughout the country, which were publicised and supported by the main left-wing political parties, including the ruling party at the time - PSOE. In response to the public resentment, the left-wing party publicly announced its intentions to reform the Spanish Criminal Code in the section on crimes against sexual freedom and sexual indemnity by introducing harsher penalties.