#234 | The attempted cover-up of Alexis’ murder
From tragedy to farce and back again: a few notes on the ongoing trial of Alexis’ murderers
The trial of Epaminondas Korkoneas and Vassilis Saraliotis, the two cops who killed Alexandros Grigoropoulos, has been taking place in the remote town of Amfissa (230 km away from Athens) since mid-February. Away from the chaotic times of Athens, an outrageous cover-up of the murder is being attempted by the cops’ lawyer (Kougias) and largely assisted, it seems, by the court’s judge.
- First, the decision to hold the trial so far away from Athens (apparently for security reasons) causes tremendous access issues to eye-witnesses wishing to testify in court; many of them (who were Alexis’ friends) are juveniles and traveling away from Athens for a few days is near-impossible.
- One of the alleged “key eye-witnesses”, named Anta Tsormpatzioudi, has now proven to be a perjurer (false witness), willingly lying to court. Her original testimony had been accepted by the court, causing the lawyers of Alexis’ family to resign in protest (the trial continues with new lawyers).
- The testimony by Ms. Tsormpatzioudi was key, as her supposed “eye-witness account” was used for the reconstruction of the murder. However, a court order to publicise the mobile phone conversations between Tsormpatzioudi and a chief police-man of the local police station of Exarcheia (called Dimos Minoudis) reveals that the two had frequent conversations (that they had denied in court) – the first being three hours after Alexis’ assassination and continuing up until a few days prior to, and on the actual day of the re-enactment of the murder.
- A friend of Alexis’ who was next to him when he was assassinated (we had spoken with him then), now 17 years old, has denied to appear in court, as he claims to be under police surveillance and fears for his life – while he has also declared he has no faith in the trial process. The court has issued an order for the violent transfer of the teenager to court; he has now gone into hiding.
- Meanwhile, one riot policeman who was present at the scene also testified yesterday, claiming that the situation at the spot prior to the assassination was calm – and in this way contradicting the statements of every single other policeman – who were claiming that the shooting took place amidst rioting…
The “trial” continues.
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