The Dec. 5 taking pictures of Kostas Frangoulis, a 16-year-old father of 1, triggered days of protests which regularly turned violent, regardless of requires restraint by {the teenager}’s household and Roma neighborhood leaders. Frangloulis died final week after spending greater than every week hospitalized in vital situation with a gunshot wound to the top.
The panel of judges that ordered the 34-year-old police officer’s launch set one bail situation, prohibiting him from leaving the nation.
Police have stated {the teenager} tried to ram the police motorbikes chasing him after he allegedly drove off from a gasoline station within the northern metropolis of Thessaloniki with out paying a 20 euro ($21) invoice. The officer accused of taking pictures him has stated he fired as a result of he feared his colleagues’ lives have been at risk, however stated he was aiming on the pick-up truck’s tires and never on the driver.
“The dad and mom have been very upset by this determination,” Panagiotis Sambanis, president of the Roma neighborhood of Central and Western Macedonia, stated after the court docket dominated. Frangoulis’ father plans to attraction, Sambanis stated.
“If we had executed this, we’d already be behind bars,” Sambanis stated. “Justice ought to have judged appropriately. It didn’t choose appropriately. It’s an injustice for the 16-year-old.”
As he has executed all through the case, Sambanis referred to as for calm. He stated Roma neighborhood leaders would meet to debate holding a protest march later within the week in Thessaloniki. “This protest will probably be peaceable. Issues is not going to get out of hand,” he stated.
Theofilos Alexopoulos, a lawyer representing Frangoulis’ household, stated Monday’s court docket determination was “mistaken,” and referred to as for an knowledgeable examination of a CCTV video which caught the incident with a view to make clear the precise circumstances of the taking pictures.
The Roma neighborhood has denounced the taking pictures as racially motivated. A number of Roma males have been injured or fatally shot lately throughout confrontations with police whereas allegedly in search of to evade arrest for breaches of the legislation.
The case has put a highlight on Greece’s Roma individuals, who face widespread discrimination and sometimes dwell on the margins of society.
The officer has been charged with a felony rely of tried manslaughter with attainable intent and a misdemeanor rely of illegally firing his weapon. Following an preliminary court docket look, he was saved beneath home arrest pending the decision of a disagreement between the prosecutor and investigating choose on whether or not to remand him in pretrial detention.
The cost is anticipated to be upgraded to manslaughter following {the teenager}’s dying. The change would require the officer to seem in court docket once more for added preliminary testimony.
