Galery

1

The case of the Marfin Bank arson in May 2010 during a rally against the first memorandum, which killed three people, started but was postponed to 14 January. This was necessary because of the absence of over 10 witnesses, whose testimony was considered essential. Therefore, by its decision, the court ordered their forced bringing to the courtroom at the next meeting.

Theodoros Sipsas, aged 34, is at the dock, as according to the indictment, he along with two other unknown accomplices was the perpetrator of the attack with Molotov cocktails against the Marfin bank branch on Stadiou Street as well as Pavlos Andreev, aged 34, who is a suspect in the attack on Yiannos bookshop along with three unknown perpetrators.

Five years after the tragic events that marked the mass protest against the involvement of the country in the bailout mechanism and after four adjournments of the case, the victims’ relatives are in court expecting to obtain justice for the death of pregnant Angeliki Papatanasopoulou, Paraskevi Zoulia and Epaminondas Tsakalis who died in the burning building.

The two perpetrators are charged with murder, explosion, manufacture and possession of explosives and malicious damage to other people’s property.

The indictment states, "On 5 May 2010 in Athens, defendant Theodoros Sipsas, in a calm state and acting intentionally along with two other unknown perpetrators, being aware of the presence of people in the two-storey building on 23 Stadiou Street and following one of the two accomplices who broke the window of the building whose ground floor housed a branch of the bank named MARFIN-EGNATIA BANK and the other accomplice who poured flammable liquid inside, on the left side of the ground floor of the same building, threw in the building a burning Molotov type makeshift explosive device, causing an explosion and subsequent fire in that building, which caused the death of pregnant Angeliki Papatanasopoulou, Paraskevi Zoulia and Epaminondas Tsakalis..."

Both defendants are free on bail and Sipsas has denied the charges from the outset and challenged the evidence of the police, which are the basis for the accusations of arson. Having questioned him before the magistrate, the investigator and the prosecutor had an argument over whether to detain him or not, the prosecutor’s office insisting on detaining him and the investigator believing that there were no conditions for ordering his detention. Ultimately, the judicial council decided that Theodoros Sipsas be released on bail.