In total imprisonment of 22 years and 9 months a 63-year-old retired Air Force man was convicted, who locked himself with his 2.5-year-old twin children in the car, where he opened a gas bottle, attempting to blow up the vehicle. The unprecedented incident happened last March in Melissochori, Thessaloniki, in front of the eyes of his estranged wife who notified the Police.

The Mixed Jury Court of Thessaloniki – before which he was tried – found him guilty of attempted serial murder, with intent, with regard to the wife and with possible intent with regard to the children, as well as for attempted explosion with danger to man and bodily harm to his wife during during their married life. The judges did not recognize him in mitigation, while they decided that the appeal would not have a deterrent effect on the execution of the sentence, with the consequence that he would return to prison.

In his plea, the accused denied all the charges attributed to him, claiming that he did not intend to kill his children, but to “scare” his estranged wife, with whom he was in a dispute. “I did it because I love my children and I wanted to claim them. I confessed at the outset that it was reckless. The presence of gas was enough to disturb my wife but not harm the children. It was a strong reaction but completely safe. I wanted to appear before the courts to speak. I gave a right that I shouldn’t have given and I apologize for it,” he said, among other things, in his apology.

“He wanted the explosion to take place and to take them to death together”, said the district attorney Argyri Kotina during her sentencing, who suggested his guilt for all the acts, while commenting on the explanations he gave she said that “they do not stand up to the logic”.