The 30-year-old from Harakopio, who is accused of arson in the recent fires in Chrysokellaria and Yameia and in another one last year, was a temporary prisoner a little while ago with the agreement of the investigator and the prosecutor.

During the long process, the 30-year-old, who initially he allegedly confessed he took a different stance presenting specific facts and parameters through the advocate of Antonis Katsas, in order to prove his innocence.

After the completion of the procedure, Mr. Katsas speaking to “E” said:

“Based on the evidence of the case file so far and mainly the confession of the accused, but also to a large extent due to the atmosphere surrounding at the moment, the fact that the whole of Greece is burning, the result of the investigative process I can characterize as expected.

Regardless, what I have to say is that the accused before the investigator denied the charges attributed to himhe reconstructed his confession and characterized it as a product of intense mainly psychological pressures and the content of his confession as a product of the problem that he himself has as a characteristic of his character. To exaggerate or even construct to the level of mythomania some things, something which was also the occasion to request a psychiatric expert opinion on his behalf to prove this mythomania.

After the long and detailed process, which I experienced today, the element that troubled me is that there is the possibility of objectively establishing the presence of the accused at the place where the fires started (at least the two recent ones on July 18 and 19) from the cameras that exist within the village and in particular from the hardware store and from the pharmacy, from where it can easily be established whether the accused left his house or his shop in the direction of the point where two of the fires allegedly started. And this element was not introduced in the interrogation.

We made a request and I imagine that Mr. Investigator will also accept it for the camera footage showing the course of the road and the presence of people, whether pedestrians or in vehicles, 24 hours a day. This will with absolute certainty prove or disprove the claim of the accused”.

It should be noted that the defendant’s request for his submission to a psychiatric expert opinionin order to prove whether he finally suffers from mythomania or not has already been accepted by the Authorities and its resultbut also the possible use of the video material can lead to the lifting of pre-trial detention.