The defendants were found guilty, three years after the murder Lyggeridi<\/b>, two of the three people who were under \u201cprotection status.\u201d <\/b><\/p>\n
Questions arise from the finding that witnesses under \u201cprotection status\u201d whose testimonies are \u201ckey\u201d to the progress of the trial in the case of the murder of police officer Giorgos Lyggeridis, are also considered defendants. <\/b><\/p>\n
This is because they will not be able to testify, since otherwise the proceedings could be annulled\u2014three years after the bloody incidents outside the \u201cMelina Merkouri\u201d in Renti <\/b>and with the hearing now halfway through.<\/p>\n
This development was communicated to the court \u2014following a request from the defense\u2014 by the Security Police, which, after the individuals arrested for the incidents were brought in, compiled the case file that was sent to the Prosecutor\u2019s Office.<\/b> It should be noted, however, that one of the protected witnesses, codenamed 67ST,<\/b> will testify as scheduled at the start of the new judicial year in September.<\/p>\nA Shadowy Role<\/b><\/h3>\n
As for the proceedings inside the courtroom, yesterday a police officer, who was on duty with a riot police squad on the night of the incidents, testified that a high-ranking police official attempted, initially unsuccessfully, to override the order from GADA headquarters that no one was to leave the stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt one point, a person holding a walkie-talkie\u2014we later realized it was the Piraeus police chief<\/b>, though he was dressed in civilian clothes\u2014brought a man over to leave, telling us \u2018Let him go\u2014he\u2019s a journalist.\u2019 \u201cWe asked him for his press ID and accreditation, but he didn\u2019t have them, so we didn\u2019t let him leave<\/b>,\u201d the witness noted.<\/p>\n
Presiding Judge: <\/b>What was the man who wanted to get out like?<\/p>\n
Police Officer:<\/b> Tall, well-built; he was wearing plain, casual clothes.<\/p>\n
At around 4 a.m., the police officer described seeing the Piraeus police chief escort two people out of the stadium without checking their identification: \u201cHe approached us and took two young men, around 22\u201325 years old, who were standing outside the police van ready to be taken into custody. They were wearing gym clothes, not team uniforms. I was there when he let them through. He then took them on a different route and did not subject them to a search. They did not go with the others who were being put into the police van. And that\u2019s how they left.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chair:<\/b> How did he get past the police officers?<\/p>\n
Police Officer:<\/b> He told them, \u201cStep aside,\u201d and walked on. A woman behind me outside the stadium shouted, \u201cWhere are they going?\u201d And he replied, \u201cI know what I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in his testimony, the police officer stated that he heard over the radio that the police chief was preventing his colleagues from conducting checks on people leaving the stadium, in violation of the order issued by the chief of the Athens Police Department, a fact that other witnesses have also testified to.<\/p>\n
In response to a question from the appellate judge regarding whether the police director was permitted to be there in plain clothes, the police witness clarified that all police officers, with the sole exception of those serving in the Security Division, are required to wear a uniform while on duty.<\/p>\n
Also significant was the testimony of a fan<\/b>, who was present at the stadium with a friend of his\u2014who is now a defendant\u2014and who stated that one month after the incidents and shortly before he was to testify to the Security Division, while he was at a game at SEF, he was approached by three hooded men who, visibly agitated, asked him if he had been at the \u201cMelina Merkouri\u201d stadium on the night of Lyggeridis\u2019s murder. When he answered in the affirmative, they told him not to say anything about what he had seen or to say as little as possible\u2014”advice” they were also giving to others inside the SEF.<\/b><\/p>\n
Since, during yesterday\u2019s proceedings as well, several of the fan witnesses cited memory lapses or recanted their preliminary statements, the plaintiffs\u2019 attorneys asked the court, \u201cIsn\u2019t it time to look into\u201d this phenomenon, hinting at possible blackmail.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three years after the murder of Lyggeridis, two of the three people who were under \u201cprotective custody\u201d were found guilty.
\nQuestions …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greece"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}