The journalist Kostas Vaxevanis denounced today that he received a phone call from a person who conveyed information about a «death contract» against him.
The publisher denounces a series of incidents, which he claims are related to the shooting at Fourthiotis' house and the shooting of police officers in Ekali a few days ago.
The relevant complaint was made public via Facebook and states the following:
«In journalism we used to say that when you get to reporting on yourself, the situation is problematic. This is the second time I have been forced to “report” on myself and it is (like the first) the result of pressure and a belief that it is the only way to protect myself.
The last time, 9 years ago, an unknown woman met me to inform me that she belonged to a group led by an NSA official, whose aim was to destroy me, first morally and then biologically. According to the “source” of the unusual report, these were people who had broken into my house, and prior to that, had leaked to the press fake receipts showing me as being on the payroll of the NSA. This group was found by the press investigation, taken to the Public Prosecutor's Office and recently sentenced to two years in prison for the receipts affair. I have written this, perhaps because I need to believe in an equally good outcome to the new adventure. It is my principle to publicize things that I assess as dangerous, believing that the most powerful protection is the citizen who knows. Unfortunately, a tragic backdrop to all this is the murder of a journalist a few days ago.
Let's start with the facts.
On the afternoon of April 6, 2021, I was visited at the Documento offices by a gentleman who wanted to inform me of a danger I was in. I agreed to talk to him, in the presence of my colleague Vangelis Triantis. In our meeting, which lasted one hour and three minutes, he told us that Menios Fourthiotis, about whom we had just made serious revelations in the newspaper, was looking for someone on the street to execute a contract for him. The contract was to shoot up Furthiotis« house to show that he was in danger, but also to hit me and another journalist whose name he could not remember. To this end he turned to a night-time guy under the pseudonym »Tarifas«, who initially seemed reluctant.
The information we were given could not be evaluated and so we stuck to recording it. However, Vangelis Triantis, in a communication on other matters with the Head of the Athens Prosecutor's Office, Sotiria Georgakopoulou, informed her of the information we had received. It was clear that no legal use could be made of it, unless our source decided to testify to the Prosecutor's Office. In addition to informally informing the Head of the Public Prosecutor's Office, I thought it was a good idea to inform my lawyers and two other colleagues besides Vangelis Triantis.
On the evening of April 17, a hooded man ostentatiously gazed at the house of Menios Fourthiotis in front of the cameras. However, he was careful not to cause damage to the house itself, or to the persons inside, but to confine himself to the... wall.
The «attack» against Fourthiotis may have provoked ironic comments in the press and social media, but for me, it had the role of confirming the information I received, according to 50%. If the information was partially confirmed by the attack, I had every reason to fear that it was true in its entirety. All the while I have been trying to be calm and cautious and looking for possible clues that might lead me to a conclusion. The last thing I would choose would be to go to the police. It is not only the Police who evaluated Furthiotis as a «target» by providing him with protection, but primarily the Police, who if they don't get to the «perpetrators» will use this whole story to make me look like an imaginative person. I have relevant experience when the five person stakeout at my house tried to make it appear as an attempted theft.
At dawn on 16 April, an unknown person attempted to enter the offices of Documento, climbing to the 5th floor from the fire escape. When he was spotted by the company's Security Control Centre, he did not attempt to leave the staircase, but with acrobatic movements, he descended through pipes, hovering 30 metres above the ground.
This afternoon (April 23) I received a call from a serious person, who told me that I should be careful, because, as another person informed him, two gunmen who were spotted by the DIAS team in Ekali and after firing managed to escape, were persons who were going to execute a contract against me, but aborted the plan due to the clash with the police. This was an incident at dawn on April 16th, one day before the “attack” on Furthiotis and a few hours before the attempted invasion of Documento. Specifically, DIA police officers had spotted two hooded men on a black XT Yamaha motorbike at the intersection of Agioi Saranda and Thiseos in Ekali. When they signaled them to stop, they shot them with a Kalashnikov.
These are the facts. I don't know if all of this really converges on my face and how. I'm a journalist, not a police officer. I know there are many people who are bothered by my journalism. I may not be in danger, but I can't possibly not be afraid. The only people who are not afraid are the idiots. I have learned over many years to live with fear and manage it. I don't allow it to manipulate me.
I know, like the majority of Greeks, that we live in a corrupt state, which cannot be trusted. Just last week, we had a front page in Documento about the mafia made up of sworn police officers and hitmen. The road that connects the sewers of crime to the penthouses of power.
I don't expect anything from the police, although they are fully responsible for what happens to me, my family or the hundred Documento workers, who are not fighting for a living but against corruption. We know that our only real strength and protection is the people, regardless of their political beliefs, who want to live in a democratic state that has no ties with the parastate.».
