Bew and Liwa clash in ‘monkey’ trial

Tones were raised during the trial of the League’s Primary Single-Member Body on the case of the complaint of the Kifissia football player Andrea Tetei for a racist attack by the president of Volos, Achillea Beo. The young striker, who was present at today’s proceedings, had complained – without naming – a Volos official that he called him a “monkey”, with Kifissia later releasing the video of Achillea Beo uttering the said phrase.

During today’s trial, the lawyers of the mayor of Volos tried not to accept the intervention of Kifissia, which can win the game if Mr. Beos is found guilty of a racist attack.

The legal representative of Kifissia, Argyris Livaswent to invoke Article 3 for Mr. Beoss to intervene and say “you don’t know article 3». The following dialogue followed:

Simoom: “Mayor, these are in your City Hall. Achilles finally. You will not cast such spells on me».

Intrusion: “You do magic! Have respect!».

Simoom: “You begged me to postpone. I’m very much a geek in all matters. Achilles, finally!».

Intrusion: “Waiter!».

Afterwards, while the tension continued, Mr. Livas asked for a one-hour break in the trial to calm down the tone, but the process continued normally, after order was restored.

THE attorney for Achilles Bew, Ms. Vlahava, argued that the word “monkey” does not have a racist connotation. “In dozens of dictionaries it is used in the sense of wicked and false. There is no dictionary that gives a racist year. We provide several copies of dictionaries, together with the interpretation of Mr. Charalambakis, a linguist. In football parlance, the word is used as monkey penalty, monkey foul and no prosecution was ever carried out. It is used figuratively. The president of AEK had called referee Kako a monkey three times. Again not properly prosecuted. The sole purpose is to alter the league standings“, he said and added:

“Mr. Beos has lived in the USA for many years, he has been involved in the artistic field. He has people of other nationalities, in his house and in his children. There was never any suspicion of a racist attack. In my opinion it is completely racist to prosecute because one man did it. He may use a sharp speech, but he is no different from other people. I hope you will consider them. Here the word was spoken in the sense of false conduct. Whichever player did it the same phrase would be used. The inclusion of each act in the racist law should be done with care based on the law itself. Was there such a danger here? In the heat of the match, a false behavior was commented on».

Mr. Beu’s other lawyer, Haris Grigoriou, added: “Even the DEAB, which we do not know for how long it will exist, which was charged in Mr. Beu’s absence and while it had a price scale of 10,000 to 1 million euros, imposed a penalty of 15,000 euros on him. We have the blackout of a football match».