Athens - Handing over the Olympic flame sparked a series of protests in Greece.
A Czech couple Klára Vrbová and her husband Stanislav Sedláček, members of the organization Students for Free Tibet, attended the protest.
They were protesting together with approximately thirty other activists in front of the Panathinaikos Stadium in Athens where the ceremony took place.
Klára Vrbová spoke yesterday to Aktuálně.cz readers in an online interview.
"Brutal" treatment
Changing pro-independent Tibet cries, they were carrying pro-Tibet banners and Tibetan flag. Vrbová was detained by police forces.
"We didn't try to trespass. We just wanted to show our flag and banners, but we were not allowed to do even this," said Vrbová to Akuálně.cz.
According to Vrbová, the protestors' aim was not to assault the Olympic torch relay nor to commit any other acts of violence.
Despite of this, Vrbová and other eleven activists were arrested - eight Tibetans, one Nepalese and two women from Greece. Besides the couple, no other Czechs were present.
"It was quite brutal. We had our hands tied behind our backs, they snatched a whistle from my mouth. Then, they forced us into a police bus, they screamed at us and didn't tell us where they are taking us," Vrbová described her experience.
Three protests in a row
In the end, all were released without any charges. Neither were they fined.
The Czech couple also tried to disturb the ceremony to light the Olympic flame one week ago. Both had been arrested then but had been released unpunished.
Vrbová and Sedláček tried to draw attention to the deteriorating situation in Tibet and to the Olympic flame in the hands of China not being a message of peace as it should be.
Last stop on the couple's protest mission was a demonstration in front of the Chinese embassy, whose purpose was to hand a petition calling for a dialogue with Dalai Lama to be initiated by the Chinese officials.
About one and a half million of signatures has been collected across the globe.
