Musician held in custody for brutal beating of student
A 25-year-old musician has been remanded into pretrial custody after testifying to an investigative magistrate and giving up the name of his accomplice in the beating of a 23-year-old student in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, authorities said on Wednesday.
The victim remains in critical condition at the city’s AHEPA University Hospital since the January 26 assault, where he sustained life-threatening injuries to the head and chest.
The 25-year-old “trapper” denied attempted murder charges but admitted to hitting the student in the face after he allegedly made an “ironic” remark at his expense to his group of friends, sparking a reaction from the passing musician and the person he was with at the time. According to the charge sheet, the attack was unprovoked.
The suspect also appears to have put the onus on his accomplice, insisting that his own blows did not cause the student’s most serious injuries. He went on to claim that he tried to help the younger man.
After the attack, the victim was taken home by his friends and went to sleep, which doctors say may have worsened his condition; he was rushed to the AHEPA hospital after his condition visibly deteriorated.
A number of trap musicians – a genre that in Greece has come to predominantly speak of drugs, violence and misogyny – have been arrested in recent months in connection with related crimes, but Kathimerini understands that the 25-year-old suspect does not have a prior criminal history.
