With numerous objections, defense attorneys for the defendants in the trial for the Lygeridis murder are seeking to impose “silence” on protected witnesses.

A number of procedural claims, in order to “block” their clients’ testimony, were deployed by the defense lawyers for the accused fans and agents of the Olympic team, during yesterday’s hearing for the murder of Giorgos Liggeridis, in December 2023, outside the “Melina Mercouri” stadium in Renti.

In fact, requesting the removal of anonymity, they actually directly opposed the institution of the “protected witness”, provoking the reaction of the unfortunate policeman’s mother: “They don’t want their statements heard because they are being burned.

Their lawyers asked that the protected witnesses not testify because they don’t want to hear everything they know, they supported the charge of criminal organization by giving all the names of the defendants.”

“They don’t want to hear all those who support the criminal organization. It’s an entire army that is committing crimes. The protected witnesses not only knew what happened the night my son was killed, but they know a lot, and have testified, about other attacks by organized Olympiacos fans after games, inside and outside Athens,” Eugenia Liggeridis continued.

In the same vein, the father of the slain policeman, Sakis Liggeridis: “Only the criminal organization has rights and don’t I have rights for having my house torn apart? Just as the accused have rights, so do we innocent people. I am optimistic and convinced that everything will go well and the prosecutor will do his job.”

It all started when during yesterday’s proceedings and while the testimonies of the protected witnesses were expected to begin, the defense lawyers, especially those of the five accused Olympiacos players, one after the other, launched a barrage of objections.

Their main claim was that the protected witnesses were present at the incidents, participated in them and therefore cannot be both witnesses and defendants. According to them, this is procedurally not allowed because it raises the issue of invalidity of the hearing and especially of the final decision of the court. They admitted, through their statements, that their testimonies “will lead to convictions.”

In response, the lawyers for the Civil Prosecution argued that for two and a half years it was not identified anywhere and it does not appear from any part of the file that three protected witnesses are also accused in the incidents in Renti. They expressed the question how it is possible for the defense lawyers to argue something that “was not identified” neither by the prosecutors nor by judges through whom the specific documentation was passed.

However, they sided with the request that the court investigate whether there is any other charge against the three witnesses in order to avoid procedural nullities and allow the testimony to continue unhindered.

The second request made by the defense was that of the identification of the witnesses. That is, that what they have to say should be said under their real names and not under code names and masked faces.

In opposition to this, the prosecution argued that this would dismantle the institution of the “protected witness”, while recalling that, despite what was said, a similar request had not been accepted in the “17 November” trial either. On the contrary, the then protected witnesses, when their code names were pronounced by the president, were betrayed by shouting “present” on their own.

Finally,the presence of a large number of defendants in the dock yesterday, when in previous sessions only one or none was presented, caused a sensation. For some this was because of what the protected witnesses had to testify, while for others it was due to their attempt to avoid the assumption that one of them might also be a protected witness, as the defence had left hints to that effect.

In any case, the prosecutor, Ilias Zagoraios, has asked to rule on the objections next week because the issue needs to be studied and investigated and therefore the trial will resume today with the testimonies of other prosecution witnesses.