Counterterrorism squad brought into Fyssas murder investigation
The Greek Police turned over to the Counterterrorism Service the investigation of the murder on Tuesday night of 34-year-old hip-hop artist Pavlos Fyssas, the state-run Athens-Macedonia New Agency (AMNA) reported Friday, saying that it was the opinion of police officials that the anti-terror squad is better equipped to investigate the telephone calls that are believed to have led up to the fatal attack on the musician.
Police sources told the AMNA Friday that there is evidence from telephone records so far suggesting that a group of men with whom Fyssas and his friends had engaged in a verbal altercation at a cafe in the Piraeus suburb of Amfiali outside of which he was stabbed, had made numerous telephone calls following the row.
It is believed that the men are supporters of ultranationalist group Golden Dawn and were calling their comrades to inform them that Fyssas, whose songs under the stage name Killah P contained explicit anti-fascism references, was at the cafe.
Counterterrorism experts are now hoping to ascertain whether any of the calls made from the cafe were also to 45-year-old Giorgos Roupakias, the police’s main suspect for the murder, who investigators say has confessed to stabbing Fyssas twice in the chest and to being a supporter of Golden Dawn.
Experts also want to trace the telephone calls – reportedly at least 10 in number – subsequently made by Roupakias to establish whether he spoke to any members of the Golden Dawn hierarchy before leaving his home for Amfiali, where Fyssas and his friends were being assaulted by a group of some 50 men believed to be supporters of the far-right party outside the cafe.
A friend of Fyssas, who was with him at the time of the attack, told daily Eleftheros Typos on Thursday that when they left the cafe, a large group of “people from Golden Dawn” had gathered nearby. He said they group attacked them and had blocked the street with their cars. The alleged witness, identified by the paper only as Michalis, said that Fyssas fought off a number of the assailants and told his friends to run away so they would not be hurt, before Roupakias arrived at the scene and stabbed him.
