“The kicks I threw at Zak Costopoulos”: The jeweler’s apology

The position that the blows to the head of Zak Costopoulos were “sloppy” and had the sole purpose of not escaping the arrest of the “perpetrator” who was trapped inside his shop on Gladstonos Street was expressed before the Mixed Jury Court by the jeweler for an apology. the charge of fatal bodily harm.

The 78-year-old defendant expressed his sorrow for the death of the 33-year-old and expressed his condolences to himself and his family to the relatives of Zak Costopoulos.

With his apology, the accused repeated the position he states from the beginning, that when he saw the victim in his shop “with a knife in his hand”, he considered that it was a theft. As he characteristically stated: “What should I assume? “That he came in to drink coffee?”

According to what the defendant told the judges, his only aim in what he did at noon on September 21, 2018, outside his jewelry store with Costopoulos, whom he several times identified as a “perpetrator”, trapped inside the area, was to “keep Zacharias in the shop so that the police can come and arrest him “. He also said that what he felt when he faced this particular situation was a threat. “I felt that he was threatening me not to be able to enter my shop. That’s how I felt. And that was my first impression. “After he left, I realized that nothing was missing from the store.”

According to the accused, the 33-year-old activist received only one kick to the head, as the others did not touch the victim. He even stated that the kicks attributed to him by the case file could not be fatal, as they were “sloppy”.

Answering dozens of questions from the headquarters, the jeweler said many times that the activist “did not steal anything at all”, a fact for which, however, in his dialogue with the president, he attributed “to the perpetrator’s confinement”. As he stated, “The fact that he did not steal makes me draw my own conclusions. In seconds he could steal. He went to the cash register but did not find any money, he was trapped and scared and he thought not to steal so that they would not catch him with the things on him “.

When asked by the judges, the accused admitted that it never crossed his mind to try to calm the 33-year-old, to talk to him or even, as the president told him, and to leave him trapped inside the shop since his only goal was to arrest him. by the police, as he reports. The accused invoked fear, because the victim was “armed”, while he said that he did not want to escape as he thought that he would have things with him from the store.

The accused was also asked about the method of surgery he chose

-President: How do you weigh these actions: do I step on someone’s hand or do I kick my head? What’s the difference;

Defendant: My beatings were not serious. It is not a blow that looks to bring death.

-President: And what blow is it that brings death?

Defendant: The kicks were accidental. They did not take him well. He died from another. He was not well either. The child had a serious problem. You do not enter a store like that….

Prosecutor: Did you think not to hit him?

Defendant: I was in a psychological state and I wanted to keep him in the store for the police to come…

Prosecutor: Breaking the window, how would you stop him?

Defendant: With the kicks, with the foot to stop him. To bully him. Maybe I was a little carried away by the voices of the people who said not to let him go.

Prosecutor: People also said to leave him alone, not to kill him ..

Defendant: I made a mistake in the way I tried to keep him ..

-Paredros: You attacked your head at a vulnerable point. This is what we are looking at…

Defendant: The purpose was to keep him from coming to the police. Why should I kill him? What to do?

The accused said during his examination by the court, that he did not have the specific store insured, due to high costs, but also because they do not easily insure shops in the area in question. He also referred to a theft that took place in his shop in 2010.

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