{"id":2513,"date":"2016-07-18T11:50:22","date_gmt":"2016-07-18T09:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/goldendawnwatch.org\/?p=2513"},"modified":"2017-02-17T19:46:02","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T17:46:02","slug":"day-76-testimony-of-witness-roupakia-continued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goldendawnwatch.org\/en\/trial\/day-76-testimony-of-witness-roupakia-continued\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 76: Testimony of witness Roupakia (continued)"},"content":{"rendered":"

76th Hearing, Ceremonial Hall, Athens Court of Appeals, 18 July 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u0399.Court access<\/strong><\/p>\n

The courtroom remains open to the public on presentation of a state ID card, which the police retain for the duration of the session. Spectators and press were present.<\/p>\n

\u0399\u0399.<\/strong>Presence and representation of the defendants<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sixteen of the 18 defendants whose physical presence was mandated by the court were in attendance; 27 defendants were recorded as absent, while the representation of the remainder was discussed during the day\u2019s proceedings.<\/p>\n

\u0399\u0399\u0399. Cross-examination of Chrysoula Roupakia by the civil action<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chrysoula Roupakia, a sister of Giorgos Roupakias, the defendant accused of stabbing Pavlos Fyssas, was called to return to the witness stand.<\/p>\n

Andreas Tzelis began the civil action\u2019s cross-examination of the witness. She stated that she didn\u2019t know if her brother had a post in Golden Dawn\u2019s security team or in its cell. The witness said she had read online that her brother was treasurer and gave out Golden Dawn party [fundraising] coupons. She said Golden Dawn security team members wore black shirts with the party emblem, fatigues and army boots, and that she had seen her brother dressed like this on three or four occasions. Asked if she had social media contact with Golden Dawn, the witness said that in the aftermath of the Fyssas homicide, while seeking information about that night, she had chatted with someone from Golden Dawn on Facebook but did not remember his pseudonym. She had mentioned his pseudonym during a deposition and it was not her fault that it hadn\u2019t been included by the investigating magistrate. The person she had chatted with had told her that Athanasios Tsorvas had been in her car that night with her brother and Ioannis Kazantzoglou. She said she had subsequently shut down her Facebook profile and reopened it months later. She had never met in person with the individual in the chat and claimed that what he\u2019d said was never confirmed.<\/p>\n

The lawyer asked the witness about her internet search on the night of the murder and why she had used the location \u201cAmfiali\u201d as a keyword. Introducing a new claim before the court, she said that when she had spoken with Roupakias, he had said \u201cwe had a fight in Amfiali and I\u2019m being held at Keratsini [police] station\u201d.<\/p>\n

Responding to a question from civil action lawyer Ellada Christodoulou, the witness said that on those occasions she had attended events organised by Golden Dawn, she hadn\u2019t worn clothes with the party\u2019s emblem. The lawyer then submitted a photograph in which the witness recognised herself at a Golden Dawn event at Meligalas wearing a shirt with the party\u2019s logo.<\/p>\n

Civil action lawyer Chrysa Papadopoulou questioned the witness about her work. Roupakia said that at the time of the Fyssas homicide, she and her husband had two fish shops, one in Halandri and one in Pagrati, and employed one person. She added that her brother helped out at the shop every day when he wasn\u2019t working at his heating fuel job. He wasn\u2019t an employee of hers and wasn\u2019t paid a full wage for his work, only pocket money. During the times when Roupakias helped out at the store, he came daily around 4am and worked through lunchtime; she said that on September 17, he had gone to the shop as usual.<\/p>\n

The witness also said she still didn\u2019t believe her brother had committed the homicide, despite his confession.<\/p>\n

Papadopoulou showed the witness some pictures, prompting defence lawyer Dimitra Velentza to object that this was time consuming and unnecessary as the witness had already identified everyone she recognised. From the photos, the witness recognised her brother and his wife, her nephew and niece, Giorgos Patelis, Kazantzoglou, Thanasis (Athanasios) Tsorvas, and wearing clothes with Golden Dawn\u2019s emblems at various meetings and events.<\/p>\n

Questioned by civil action lawyer Takis Zotos about the murder weapon, the witness said it had been a random purchase from a street vendor and that she used it at work. She said the knife\u2019s three grooves weren\u2019t particularly useful to her. Asked about Kazantzoglou, the witness said her brother had introduced her to a man using the pseudonym \u201cTsich\u201d and that she later learned from television that \u201cTsich\u201d was Kazantzoglou and that his mobile phone, bag and ID card had been found in her car that night.<\/p>\n

During cross-examination by civil action lawyer Thanasis Kampagiannis, the witness stated that on the night of the homicide, Roupakias hadn\u2019t received a text message from Giorgos Dimou but that Dimou had called him on the phone. He said that after the phone call, they had each gone from their respective homes to the Golden Dawn branch office. The witness said that the \u201csecurity\u201d mentioned in her statement was some five or six people wearing Golden Dawn shirts, fatigues and army boots, and were the same as \u201cpatrols\u201d. She\u2019d seen this apparel at Golden Dawn events and had also seen her brother dressed this way. The lawyer showed the witness photos from Meligalas and asked her to describe the scene and layout. She said that most of the crowd outside the church wore black shirts and that everyone pictured in the front row wore fatigues. Asked about a Golden Dawn event she had attended, the witness said she wasn\u2019t aware of a bulletin instructing participants to wear the Golden Dawn shirt and hadn\u2019t known beforehand that they would all be wearing this shirt at the event. She said she had put on her Golden Dawn shirt so she could look like the others as she had happened to have it with her and changed into it at the event. The witness also described a photo showing a Golden Dawn shirt, two guns and a knife.<\/p>\n

Civil action lawyer Panagiotis Sapountzakis asked the witness: \u201cDo you believe Roupakias was dragged out of his car that night as he says? Did Fyssas go to the local branch that night or did Roupakias happen to be at the spot and attacked Fyssas?\u201d An uproar followed and the witness did not reply. The lawyer continued: \u201cThe car is yours, the knife is yours, Roupakias is your brother, but you have nothing to do with the murder?\u201d<\/p>\n

The courtroom erupted into both protests and cheering.<\/p>\n

The presiding judge adjourned the hearing until 9am, 19 July 2016. It was announced that the session would hear testimony from Fyssas\u2019 friend Nikos Hatziefstratiou after Chrysoula Roupakia asked to be excused from the next date due to personal commitments. Her testimony is expected to continue at Athens Appeals Court on Thursday, 21 July 2016.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

76th Hearing, Ceremonial Hall, Athens Court of Appeals, 18 July 2016 \u0399.Court access The courtroom remains open to the public on presentation of a state ID card, which the police retain for the duration of the session. Spectators and press were present. \u0399\u0399.Presence and representation of the defendants Sixteen of the 18 defendants whose physical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goldendawnwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goldendawnwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goldendawnwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldendawnwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldendawnwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2513"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/goldendawnwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2514,"href":"https:\/\/goldendawnwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2513\/revisions\/2514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldendawnwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goldendawnwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldendawnwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldendawnwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}