Special forces policemen Epaminondas Korkoneas and Vassilis Saraliotis, who shot and killed the 15 year old Alexis Grigoropoulos in December 2008 in Exarhia, heard the ruling of the court of appeal in Athens.
As Vima newspaper writes Korkoneas seems "consciously careless" and the judges stress that he knew about the consequences of the shooting and when he was aiming his gun against the group of teenagers, he knew that there will be victims.
Saraliotis is just as guilty, because he did not stop his colleague and at the same time he was a part of the wrangle with the teenagers and he called them names. This is how he showed that he is ready to act and he was also showing off with the power he has as a policeman.
The council of the Athens court of appeal confirmed their decision to send the two policemen to the jury court, in order for Epaminondas Korkoneas to be sentenced as the main perpetrator and Vassilis Saraliotis as the accomplice in the murder.
Korkoneas said that he did not intent to kill the 15 year old boy. He claims he was threatened by the group and this is why he shot three times in the air to frighten them and the death of Alexis Grigoropoulos was caused by a ricocheted bullet.
The other defendant - Saraliotis, is supporting the same story but the witnesses refute the claims of the two defendants. According to all questioned Epaminondas Korkoneas provoked the youngsters by swearing at them and when they answered, he took out his gun and aimed directly towards them and not in the air.
After the judges researched the claims of the defendants, the attestations of the witnesses and the rest of the proof, they announced their decision that "the use of weapon was unjustified, because there was no reason for its use."
Due to this, the council of the court of appeal did not grant the request of Saraliotis to be released from prison.