New Smyrna: The “Indian” was released from prison, the fiasco was completed

The Athens Plenary Council, with the agreement of the Athens Prosecutor's Office, evaluating the documentary evidence, ruled in his decision, the lifting of the temporary detention of the so-called «Indian.» for the attempted murder against the police officer that occurred on 09/03/2021 in Nea Smyrni.

His defence counsel, Pavlos Sarakis said:

«The Greek Justice and specifically the Athens Judicial Council, vindicated our legal efforts to release an innocent citizen, who was fraudulently accused by his mentally unstable brother-in-law, for the criminal act against the policeman in Smyrna. For 7 months no further incriminating evidence has emerged from the investigative inquiry against our client, on the contrary, his allegations were fully documented, that not only was he not involved in the criminal act against the police officer, but at that time he was playing basketball with his friends in Elefsina. The detention of an innocent fellow citizen with only a flimsy testimony of an insane person as evidence will weigh on the consciences of all those who participated in it for life. The case of the so-called «Indian» should be a beacon for justice, so that similar events that taint the lives of people and justice itself can be avoided in the future.»

It is recalled that the “Indian”, in the application for release he had filed about five months ago, relied on audiovisual material according to which he was in Elefsina at the time in question.

The chronicle of the arrest

The 30-year-old was arrested based on the testimony of a man who testified that on the night of the incidents he saw him at the junction of Agia Fotini and Plastira.

It was only two days after the unprovoked attack on citizens by police officers in the local square and the incidents started after a gathering and protest march of local residents.

As the “witness” claimed, while he was walking towards Sygrou Avenue he saw the accused and asked him: “What are you doing here..., are you going to make trouble? He replied “why, are you going to give me away? and he replied “yes, dry, if you make trouble and hurt police officers.”

In his testimony, he said that “immediately afterwards I heard someone from the crowd shouting ”the cops are coming with the duckies” and I saw him running at speed, along with other people towards the policemen passing by with the duckies, reaching the first ones and started kicking a fallen policeman. A... was wearing dark-colored sweatpants with a white stripe down the sides and a khaki-colored jacket that had a sort of light-colored stamp on the back."

The police arrested the 30-year-old in Magoula, he was transferred to the prosecutor's office, as part of the case against unknown persons for the attempted murder of the police officer.

The 13th ordinary investigating magistrate had decided to dismiss, as unfounded, the appeal against the temporary detention of the “Indian”. The magistrate said that the persons appearing in the video footage were not identified, and stressed that a warrant to lift the phone privacy of his mobile phone, the search for video footage from numerous shops around the scene of the attack, the results of laboratory tests of biological DNA material, fingerprints, and the summoning of witnesses were pending.

However, the prosecutor's recommendation was different, who had argued that the accused's pre-trial detention should be lifted, on the grounds that «the evaluation of the evidence did not reveal any serious indications of the accused's guilt for the acts of which he is accused. In particular, his involvement is based mainly on the sworn statements of G.A., the estranged husband of the defendant's sister. (...) It should be noted that both the accused and his sister claimed that this witness frequently visited their house, despite their refusal, causing incidents and threatening them, blaming the accused solely for removing him from the house».

At the same time, the prosecutor stressed that a few hours after the attempted manslaughter against the police officer, a search was carried out at the home of the accused, but the clothes he allegedly wore during the commission of the crime were not found, while making a thorough reference to the testimony of the witness, which made him an accused: “his testimony is not credible and his motives are different from the essential truth” while stating that in the past this witness has been convicted of the offence of making a false report when he had phoned direct action about an alleged attack by anarchists on a police officer of a security company.