Sticks, Stones and Now Streakers at Greek Protests

Sticks, stones and firebombs are routine at Greek anti-austerity protests but the streakers that turned up at this week's demonstrations against German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit are a first.

Two men, a 56-year-old American and a younger man believed to be British, startled onlookers on Tuesday by running naked in central Athens where riot police had earlier clashed with masked protesters throwing bottles and broken masonry.

The second man ran into the crowd and disappeared.

But police apprehended the American -- who was identified in a Thursday report as Douglas Alan Hattier of Philadelphia -- after he exposed himself before the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Greece's foremost military memorial.

A court on Wednesday cleared Hattier of indecent exposure after his lawyer claimed he was drunk but he was detained for failing to produce a passport.

Hattier claims his passport "was stolen by the mafia".

"I am not afraid. I had done something similar in the United States," he told Ethnos daily before his court hearing.

"I feel Balkan and a brother to the Greeks," Hattier said.