Angry reactions were provoked by policeman Epaminondas Korkoneas’ statement, who shot the deadly bullet, which killed the 16 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos. The accused in deliberate murder and illegal use of weapon gave an eleven page statement yesterday to the examining magistrate who is investigating the events from Saturday night in Eksarhia. The policeman also appeared at 3:00 pm for questioning in the Justice Palace in Athens. Neither in his written statement nor during his questioning did he say he is sorry for what happened or gave condolences to the family of the perished boy.

37 year old Korkoneas, father of three young children, claims that Alexandros Grigoropoulos and his friends gathered every Saturday in front of the PASOK offices and threw different objects at them. The fatal Saturday they started committing outrages at the indoor pool in Halandri, where they saw a game between water polo teams Olympiakos and Panatinaikos. Due to the youngsters rave few viewers and Olympiakos’ coach got hurt. “I know that those kids come from rich families in the Northern suburbs, who go to Eksarhia every Saturday night and to stadiums where they cause riots,” claims the defendant.

The presumptive killer also says in his statement that the 16 year old Alexandros changes schools regularly due to bad behavior. This testimony was disproved in a special announcement by the school, which says that the boy finished primary and elementary level before he was moved by his mother to another high school. The school’s announcement describes Alexandros Grigoropoulos as an excellent and diligent student, who never caused trouble for teachers or classmates. Epaminondas Korkoneas and his also accused colleague Vasilios Saraliotis deny all accusations for premeditative murder and continue claiming it was an accident.

The media were outraged by the statement of the policemen’s lawyer Alexis Kouyas who said that the results from the ballistic expertise show that the boy died from a ricocheted bullet. The mentioned results have not been announced officially yet and according to lawyers, the attorney does not have the right to base his arguments on them. The examining magistrate left the 2 accused men in the arrest.

For another night there were conflicts between anarchists and police in Athens and Thessaloniki but they were localized and were not as big as the ones from the previous nights.