NEWS

Guards accused of causing inmate’s death granted conditional release

Six correctional officers who have been in pretrial custody for a year in connection with the death of Albanian inmate Ilie Kareli at Nigrita Prison in northern Greece were granted conditional release on Thursday.

A judicial council permitted the release of the six prison guards, who are accused of having participated in the torture of the inmate, inflicting injuries that led to his death.

The guards were freed on the condition that they do not leave the country, report regularly to their local police precincts and each post a 3,000-euro bail payment.

The council decided that the defendants could be released as they had made no attempt to escape and are not deemed to be a flight risk.

Kareli was transferred to Nigrita in March of last year after killing a guard at Malandrino Prison in central Greece.

Closed-circuit television footage showed him being taken by guards into a waiting room and then being transferred, bruised and half-undressed, to his cell, where he died.

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