NEWS

Clemency for young patricide

A 22-year-old car mechanic who as a schoolboy four years ago killed his father who was trying to rape his mother had his original, eight-year suspended prison sentence slashed to three years yesterday. An Athens appeals court accepted that Yiannis Kolovis, who is currently serving his military service, acted in a state of great mental torment. It also took into account his youth at the time of the crime and handed him a three-year, suspended sentence. Kolovis repeatedly struck his father with a hammer in their house in February 1998 as Nikos Kolovis, 47, grabbed his 44-year-old wife, Evanthia, in front of their two sons, and tried to rape her. The couple had frequent, violent arguments, and, according to Nikos Kolovis, his father – who died in hospital two days after the attack – often sexually assaulted his mother. In court yesterday, the dead man’s brothers both requested clemency for their nephew, saying his parents were to blame for what had happened. In early 1949, Vayias was conscripted into the national army and sent to fight the Democratic Army in the Grammos Mountains, near the Albanian border. In May, he deserted to the other side.

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