In Brief
ALEX TRIAL
Prosecutor suggests change to charges against five children A Thessaloniki prosecutor yesterday proposed that the five children implicated in the disappearance of 11-year-old Alex Meshivili from the northern town of Veria nearly three years ago be charged with causing grievous bodily harm and not with murder, as is currently the case. Prosecutor Nikos Karamolegos said he believed that Meshivili, who has been missing since February 2006, probably died from exposure after being abandoned by the children in a derelict building following a fall. He said he did not believe the boy had been beaten to death by the other children. TEEN SHOOTING Coroner says bullet ricocheted Coroner Manolis Michalodimitrakis told a magistrate investigating the December 6 killing of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos that he believes the bullet that killed the teenager ricocheted but that the officer who fired it did not shoot into the air. Michalodimitrakis has been put forward as a witness by special guard Epaminondas Korkoneas’s legal team. The coroner said that the shot was fired from a distance of some 25 meters and not directly at Grigoropoulos. Cab concerns A survey conducted by the Athens Labor Center, in conjunction with the traffic police and officials from the Social Security Foundation (IKA), found that 15 percent of cabbies do not have driver’s licenses or permits to drive taxis. It also suggested that 10 percent of drivers are over the age of 70 and were driving illegally. Of some 1,500 cab drivers surveyed, almost nine in 10 were found to be uninsured. During the research, two unlicensed taxis were also discovered. Soccer clash A Thessaloniki prosecutor ordered an investigation yesterday into clashes between fans and police at the Iraklis vs AEK soccer game on Saturday. A 57-year-old Iraklis fan died of a heart attack at the end of the game when supporters of both teams spilled onto the running track around the pitch. Prosecutor Dimitris Papageorgiou said he wants to investigate reports that riot police struck Iraklis fans without making any arrests. Authorities had said that the fan was not involved in any violence. Addicts’ center A panel of experts yesterday advised authorities in Piraeus to close a methadone center run by the Greek Organization Against Drugs (OKANA) in the center of the city and relocate it to one of the local hospitals. The advice comes in the wake of a drug addict being shot dead on the street near the OKANA building earlier this month. Migrants detained Port Authority officials on Lesvos yesterday detained 12 illegal immigrants who arrived on the island in an inflatable rowboat from neighboring Turkey. The ethnic origin of the migrants was unclear. Gaza aid A cargo ship bearing humanitarian aid for injured Palestinians, the third to leave Greece in the past month, set sail from Piraeus yesterday in the presence of Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis and Archbishop Ieronymos. «We will continue (to send aid), particularly now that aid corridors have opened and supplies can reach (Gaza) quickly,» Bakoyannis said.
