Zammit’s killer given long term
A bouncer who attacked an Australian tourist on Myconos in 2008 was yesterday given a 22.5-year jail sentence for killing 20-year-old Doujon Zammit but escaped a life term after a Lesvos court reduced the charge against him from murder to causing fatal bodily harm. Marios Antonopoulos, a 25-year-old student, admitted to punching Zammit but denied repeatedly hitting him with a foldout metal baton near the Tropicana bar on Paradise beach on July 28, 2008, when the 20-year-old and several other Australians were pursued by employees after a handbag allegedly went missing. Zammit was severely beaten and had to be airlifted to Athens for treatment. His parents, Oliver and Rosemarie, decided to turn off his life-support machine on August 2 and donated their son’s organs, earning the respect and plaudits of Greek politicians and citizens. Two other bar workers, Dimitris Varonos and Giorgos Hadzioannou, were also found guilty as accessories to the attack on Zammit. Hadzioannou received a sentence of eight years and two months. Varonos was sentenced to seven years and six months in jail. Both appealed and were released from custody pending their hearing. Antonopoulos also appealed but was not released. A fourth person has been accused of taking part in the assault but, as he is still a minor, will appear before a juvenile court in a separate trial. Oliver Zammit said he was unhappy Varonos and Hadzioannou were allowed to walk free. «We believe in justice, we believe in law and we accept the sentences,» he said. «But we are disappointed… Doujon didn’t have justice the night they took his life; there was no court, no justice, no jury. We’ve been given a life sentence and we will have to live with this for the rest of our lives.»
