By examining the first witnesses for the brutalized to death – according to category – blows received by Zak Kostopoulos on September 21, 2018 in Gladstonos Street by two shopkeepers, the trial of the case began before the joint sworn Court of Appeal.

Accused in the second degree in the case of the horrific death of the 33-year-old, the 81-year-old jeweler Spyridon Dimopoulos and the 65-year-old broker Athanasios Hortarias are on trial, who have been sentenced in the first instance to 10 years in prison each.

The two accused shopkeepers are free, as the jeweler is under house arrest due to his age (and was absent from the trial today), while his co-accused, present in the dock, is free with a suspended sentence. The broker had been sent to prison after the first court decision, but after two months of construction, he succeeded in being granted probation.

In the will it is stated that Kostopoulos “entered for an unknown reason” the 81-year-old’s jewelry store on Gladstonos Street, whose door was unsecured by the owner due to his brief absence. The victim, according to the case file, was overexcited and when the door “locked” and he couldn’t get out, he started hitting with a fire extinguisher, first the glass door and then the lower level of the window which was shattered. When the victim tried to crawl out of there, he was repeatedly hit on the head and body by the jeweler and the broker. The successive severe blows received by the 33-year-old, according to the forensic report, “contributed to the induction of organic stress, which in turn caused the ischemic-type lesions of the myocardium that were the final cause of death.”

Today in court, in a room full of people, the round of statements was opened by the brother and mother of Zak Kostopoulos, who ask for the punishment of the two defendants . The defendants themselves declare their innocence, claiming that it was not their actions that caused the death of the 33-year-old activist.

The relatives of the victim emphasized in court that the two convicted in the first instance, even now, seem not to have understood the gravity and ferocity of their act.

“Five and a half years now we have been asking for the obvious – justice and punishment. The two defendants did not see what they did as a crime. I consider them extremely dangerous. If anyone is dangerous in this story it wasn’t my child. I am begging you to deliver justice,” said the 33-year-old’s mother, Eleni Kostopoulou, who emphasized that the defendants never apologized to her for their actions.

A little earlier, the brother of the victim, Nikos Kostopoulos, had said in his testimony: “My brother was kicked to death. For five years unfortunately, these people thought that Zacharias did not deserve to live, and it seems that he is not worthy of justice either, because I see that these people are out.”

Referring to the crucial day, the mother of Zak Kostopoulis expressed in court the opinion that her son had entered the jewelry store to protect himself, because possibly “someone or something scared him”. He also added that “the police didn’t do any checks and so we never found out why he went into two stores. I feel that in this crime, the police, because they were involved, didn’t do everything that was required. There were so many cameras. Why weren’t they used?” Why wasn’t there an investigation?” he wondered.

Nikos Kostopoulos, in his own testimony, emphasized that the claims of the two defendants that the 33-year-old entered the jewelry store to rob were never confirmed. “The police informed my aunt that Zacharias went in to rob and was killed. This was not confirmed, because it was not the truth,” he said, while pointing out that “if it weren’t for the videos, unfortunately we wouldn’t know the truth.”

The witness Angeliki Spanou, the last person who had spoken to the victim, in her testimony, said: “That day we spoke on the phone. Instinctively I knew he was not well. I asked him where he was and he told me Omonia. He said ‘don’t hang up.’ And that’s when I realized I was right. I asked him if he was scared or in danger and he said “yes, don’t hang up”. I knew he had been bullied many times because of his homosexuality. I also asked him what’s going on, is someone chasing you? Me this question I will die too…All he said was don’t hang up and at some point I heard him say ‘excuse me sir, can I ask you something?’. And before I heard the answer he hung up. The mind it didn’t lead to anything specific, but I imagined that they would bully him again,” added Mrs. Spanou, who said that “I had Zak as my child”.

The trial will continue on January 26, 2024, with the testimony of the medical examiners.