“I kicked my foot in the air and it came in contact with Jacques’s head,” the broker said in his apology.

With his apologies second citizen and of two of the four accused police officers for fatal bodily harm to him Jacques Costopoulos completed today procedure before the MOD.

THE brokerwho appears in the videos of the incident hitting along with him jeweler the injured activist as he tries to free himself from jewelry storesaid in his apology that he decided to intervene in the incident “instinctively to protect himself and his citizens».

The accused, referring to a sad event, denied that he himself contributed to the death of the 33-year-old activist, attributing the accusation against him to “erroneous assumptions of the forensic report». As he said: “I did not expect this development under any circumstances. Today I think his death was an unfortunate event and very sad but had nothing to do with my action... I did not hit it head of. I hit him airtrying to throw the glasses out of the glass so that he would not be injured and came in contact with his head. “If I had wanted to hit him I would have continued, but I did not.”

He said that when he went to the place where people had already gathered, he saw the 33-year-old trying to break the cash register while in “Insane situation”. When he saw him trying to get out of the broken shop window, holding a knife, he decided to intervene so as not to escape “because he had obviously entered to steal and was trapped”.

The 59-year-old broker also said that because he left the scene seeing as the last image of Zak Costopoulos pointing the glass at his neck, he believed that his death, which was announced later, was due to suicide. As he stressed, three days later, he presented himself to the Police because then he learned that he was looking for him, and there he heard that the deceased was “Zak Costopoulos, an important person of a specific community”, a fact that was “instrumentalized by a group of people” and an attempt was made to set up irrelevant to the facts. “

He also referred to a “pogrom” against him, after his apology to the investigator, with publications and disclosure of his details, a fact that affected his work.

During his examination by the court, the accused estimated, when asked what other explanation, other than the robbery, could exist for the victim’s behavior, that “he has taken substances”. When the president told him that “he has not taken drugs”, the broker stated that he did not know what could have happened. However, he ruled out that the 33-year-old entered the jewelry store, chased, terrified by something. “He would not go to a jewelry store if he was being chased, he would go to a cafeteria. “When he comes in and makes glasses and nails, he has other purposes.”

The broker repeated many times that his involvement was about his belief that he had to avoid danger for himself and his fellow human beings.

Defendant: I saw my fellow human beings in danger, it was an instinctive reaction to stop it, not to hurt. The Police had not come and I went to prevent the evil because it usually comes after the evil has happened.

President: So it never comes on time and therefore we all have to get involved.

– It is a social responsibility to protect your fellow man when he is in danger. I was selflessly motivated and I acted instinctively but also logically.

President: If we all acted instinctively we would be a jungle…

The broker was asked to clarify how, after trying to restrain Jacques Costopoulos inside the jewelry store, he wanted to clean the windows at the same time (which protruded in the shop window, preventing the 33-year-old from leaving), thus effectively opening a passage for him to go out.

– Defendant: I kicked the glass so that he would not be injured…

President: Isn’t that a bit contradictory? It’s dangerous and it holds a knife but do you break the windows to get it out?

– Defendant: I did not want to get hurt…

– President: But then you kicked him…

The accused was asked to comment on the fact of complete instability and weakness that appears in the videos to have the victim while he was inside the jewelry store and replied that if he “holds a knife it is dangerous”. He was also asked why he did not choose to remove people instead of doing what he did and said “I am not a trained police officer”.

Juror: By what you did, you made it easier for him to get out. Since you say he did not have good access to get out… I do not understand…

Defendant: Everything happened in a flash. My objective was to disarm him safely.

– Juror: What is the reason for facilitating the exit, while you say that you wanted to limit it to one place?

– Defendant: He wanted to leave. He broke the glass with his head. I did not want to hurt him…

– Juror: but you do not answer me…

Defendant: I wanted to protect him and I understood it that way.

In their apologies, two of the four police officers stressed that the signal they had received for the incident on Gladstonos Street was related to “robbery” and then that there was “immobilization of the perpetrator by citizens”.

The DIAS police officer, who arrived first with his couple, is the one who appears in the video kicking the 33-year-old. He told the court – after expressing his condolences for the death – that when he arrived he saw the activist lying on his back and injured. So at first he did not arrest him and let the rescuer help him. But when, as he said, he saw the victim trying to attack the rescuer with a glass, he kicked him to a point that did not injure a vital organ.

Regarding the knife, in which no fingerprints were found, the police officer said that when he was informed by the broker that he disarmed the 33-year-old and threw the knife inside the store, he went to the jewelry store to preserve the evidence. However, he did not have disposable gloves and so “with the tips of my fingers I caught it from the notches it has so as not to alter fingerprints”.

-President: No fingerprints were found on the knife.

– Juror: What were the physical contacts you had with Jacques Costopoulos?

Defendant: The physical contact I had with the deceased, was the push I made, with my foot in soft molecules below the waist. I did not want to hurt him. I wanted him to lose his balance. That was the only contact I had with him.

The second police officer said in his apology that the only physical contact he had with Zak Costopoulos was the “push on his buttocks” in order to drop the glass in his hand and be able to arrest him with his colleagues.

Answering questions from the Headquarters, he said that he did not notice the color of the 33-year-old changing, while he stressed that they were not asked by the EKAB crew to accompany him to the ambulance, as happens in cases where the patient is considered dangerous.

Both the president and the judges, as well as the prosecutor, asked the police officer many questions if it was appropriate to detain the 33-year-old in the situation he was in. The accused, for his part, stressed that from the moment he threatened with the glass, the priority was to disarm and then be arrested, handcuffed to be picked up by EKAB.

Defendant: Our concern was to arrest him and hand him over.

– President: Deliver him alive.

– Defendant: He left alive.

Prosecutor: Did you have to judge that no handcuffing should have taken place at that time?

Defendant: At the time he got up with the glass he was dangerous. From the moment he had shown tendencies to flee he was dangerous and we had to arrest him.

The trial continues on April 4 with the apologies of the other two defendants.

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