NEWS

Man fires gun ‘in bid to scare killers’ outside Athens court

Man fires gun ‘in bid to scare  killers’ outside Athens court

A man who opened fire outside an Athens appeals court on Friday told police he wanted to frighten the killers of his 26-year-old relative Marios Papageorgiou, who went missing five years ago – and is presumed dead – to make them reveal where he is buried.

“I want them to at last reveal where they have buried him,” said the man, a cousin of the victim’s mother. He fired three shots in the air with a handgun while speaking to the media and was arrested by police shortly after.

He also said that his act was in protest at the court’s decision to postpone the appeal until March 2018.

Papageorgiou was last seen as he was driving out of the town of Diakofto in the Peloponnese region of Achaia in August 2012. His kidnappers demanded a 620,000-euro ransom from his mother the next day.The kidnappers were arrested two months later, but the body of Papageorgiou was never found.

A 73-year-old friend of the family and his wife, as well as five others, were convicted of the crime at the initial trial.

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