{"id":2515,"date":"2016-07-19T11:53:19","date_gmt":"2016-07-19T09:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/goldendawnwatch.org\/?p=2515"},"modified":"2017-02-17T19:45:21","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T17:45:21","slug":"day-77-testimony-of-witness-hatziefstratiou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goldendawnwatch.org\/en\/trial\/day-77-testimony-of-witness-hatziefstratiou\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 77: Testimony of witness Hatziefstratiou"},"content":{"rendered":"

77th Hearing, <\/strong><\/span>Ceremonial Hall, Athens Court of Appeals<\/span>, 19 July 2016<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Court access<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The courtroom remains to be open to the public on presentation of a state ID card, which is retained by police for the session. There was a large attendance by spectators and press.<\/p>\n

2<\/strong><\/span>. Presence and representation of defendants<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Sixteen of the 18 defendants whose physical presence was mandated by the court were in attendance; counsel for Georgios-Christos Tsakanikas said her client had been unable to obtain leave from work.<\/p>\n

3<\/strong><\/span>. Testimony <\/strong><\/span>of Nikos Hatziefstratiou<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nikos Hatziefstratiou<\/b>, a friend of Pavlos Fyssas, was called to the witness stand. The following is an extract from his statement before the court:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been friends with Pavlos Fyssas since 2003 or 2004. On the evening of 17 September 17, we went out for a beer with Low Pi [Michalis Xypolitos], Synco [Pavlos Seirlis], Dimitris Melachrinopoulos and Christos Pakiotis. There was another guy with us, I think his name was Ilias [Kontonikolas], and a girl. We were in a caf\u00e9 and at some point Seirlis suggested we go meet Pavlos, so we drove to Koralli [another caf\u00e9]. Pavlos was there with his girlfriend and Giorgos Doulvaris. I remember two guys in the caf\u00e9 who weren\u2019t watching the television, but us instead. I remember one of them was wearing fatigues and army boots. I think the other one wore jeans and a black t-shirt. One of them was around 40 years old, had a beard and greying hair, about the length of mine. The other one was over 30, with very short-cropped hair or bald. At some point, one of them got up and accidentally nudged one of us as he walked past. I recall Pavlos saying to me: \u2018Why are those guys staring like that? It\u2019s annoying.\u2019 I replied: \u2018Don\u2019t pay any attention; they\u2019re Golden Dawn.\u2019 He continued to smile. There was no altercation. While my friends were still in the caf\u00e9, I stepped outside to talk to my girlfriend on the phone. I saw the two of them standing over the open trunk of their car, which was parked right behind ours. I saw one of them staring at me and the other, the grey-haired one, putting on his gloves. The rest of my friends came out. Those guys kept staring. That\u2019s when I saw someone else who was receiving successive phone calls. Pakiotis was complaining about his stomach, so one of us went with him to hail a taxi. We wanted to take our car but couldn\u2019t. The guys were still staring at us; the trunk of their car was popped open. We talked about how we\u2019d leave. Another guy appeared on a motorcycle to mediate. I don\u2019t know if they called him, I don\u2019t know if he wanted to delay us, but we wasted about five minutes with him. Afterwards I suggested going for a beer. Just seconds after I saw the Dias [police motorcycle] squad drive past, motorbikes started coming; there were about 30 people riding them. The motorcycles were coming down Tsaldari street fast to Kefallinias street, heading towards Koralli. Just then, a car stopped on the same side; some motorbikes passed it, others lingered behind. The car\u2019s driver, Giorgos Roupakias, asked for directions to Koralli. Pavlos answered, but I leaned down to the car window too. There was someone in the passenger seat and a blonde girl in the back seat. There was pedestrian traffic on Tsaldari street and some car traffic too. We heard swearing. We turned to look towards Kefallinias, in the direction of Koralli, and saw people coming towards Tsaldari. It was a mass of people, but probably no more than 40; maybe there were about 30. I heard someone say, \u2018come here, chickens\u2018, \u2018we\u2019re going to fuck you\u2018, \u2018we\u2019re going to kill you\u2019. One of them said to Pavlos, \u2018come here, chicken; I\u2019m going to smash you, I\u2019m going to kill you, I\u2019m going to fuck you\u2019 and other such crude things. He was shouting at Pavlos specifically. He was wearing a beige t-shirt, had short hair, was about 1.80m tall. The Dias squad arrived then and a police officer came between that guy and Pavlos. The whole group had crossed to the other side of the street. Meantime, more people appeared: the largest group. Pavlos said, we\u2019re running. The last image I have as I turned to flee was Pavlos walking backwards slowly and the others closing in on him. Their behavior was aggressive. One wielded something black, like a crowbar. I think one of the guys on Kefallinias wielded something like a piece of wood. I first ducked into a front yard and then crossed into a ground-level parking area. I called the police. When the police came, they put all four of us into the back seat of the squad car and handcuffed us. Before getting into the squad car, we gave police our ID cards and said we were the ones who had called them. In the squad car, we heard that Pavlos had been stabbed. I don\u2019t remember how we learned this, whether we heard it over the police radio or if someone called Seirlis. We didn\u2019t know yet that he had died. Roupakias was at the police station quite nonchalant and when we learned there that Pavlos had died, he left.\u201d<\/p>\n

4<\/strong><\/span>. Questions from the bench<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The presiding judge asked the witness to identify the defendants. He said that three years later, he could only recognise Roupakias.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor asked the witness if the man speaking on the phone had been inside Koralli earlier and if the men he had seen in the caf\u00e9 had also been talking on their phones. The witness said he didn\u2019t know whether the man had been inside earlier but that he was talking on the phone and ringing up people. As for the guys, he saw inside the caf\u00e9, the witness said one of them was sending text messages. In a follow-up question, the public prosecutor asked the witness how he could be sure the man was texting. Hatziefstratiou said his finger movements didn\u2019t suggest anything else.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor asked why Fyssas hadn\u2019t run too and why he hadn\u2019t gone back to help Fyssas after seeing him alone with the others half a meter away preparing to pounce. The witness said that Fyssas probably stayed back to settle things and that for the past three years, he\u2019d been tortured by the fact that he\u2019d left his friend alone. If he had stayed back to help, they may have killed him too. In response to the deputy prosecutor\u2019s question, the witness said he had seen something like wooden poles in the car\u2019s open trunk.<\/p>\n

5<\/strong><\/span>. Cross-examination by the civil action<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Replying to questions from civil action lawyer Chrysa Papadopoulou, the witness said Fyssas\u2019 girlfriend had been next to him. He didn\u2019t think so many people gathered at the spot that night by coincidence.<\/p>\n

To civil action lawyer Eleftheria Tompatzoglou\u2019s questions, the witness said it seemed like the man in the car asking for directions (Roupakias) was with the others. He added that his friends had been strip-searched at the police station.<\/p>\n

In response to civil action lawyer Violetta Kougiatsou, Hatziefstratiou said that in the attack on the All Workers Militant Front (PAME), all the leftists assaulted had been targeted.<\/p>\n

Questioned by civil action lawyer Andreas Tzelis, the witness said the pseudonym \u201cKillah P\u201d stood for \u201ckill the past\u201d and that his own moniker, Thanasimos<\/span><\/i> (Deadly), was actually about his volleyball serve.<\/p>\n

Answering civil action lawyer Takis Zotos, the witness said he had suffered a panic attack in the police station on hearing of his friend\u2019s death and that he had been taken to Nikea General State Hospital. He had given his preliminary statement after being released. He had witnessed a Golden Dawn attack on migrants at the amusement park where he and his girlfriend worked. Golden Dawn turned on migrants, homosexuals and leftists.<\/p>\n

Questioned by civil action lawyer Thanasis Kampagiannis, the witness said the men outside Koralli and the men inside were Golden Dawn. He said they were outnumbered ten to one and that wouldn\u2019t have changed even if they had stayed to help Fyssas.<\/p>\n

6<\/strong><\/span>. Cross-examination by the defense<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Stamatia Markou-Nikopoulou, counsel for defendant Ioannis Aggos, began the cross-examination of the witness by asking if the Fyssas group had said something insulting about the others. Hatziefstratiou said that they had commented among themselves that \u201cthe cunts won\u2019t let us get to the car\u201d but that this hadn\u2019t been heard by the others.<\/p>\n

In reply to questions from defendant Anastasios\u00a0Anadiotis\u2019 lawyer Nikos Kontovazenitis, Hatziefstratiou said that he didn\u2019t have a direct line of sight to the murder scene.<\/p>\n

To questions from Vasilis Oplantzakis, the lawyer for defendant Ioannis Kazantzoglou, the witness replied that the 30 people who arrived came organised to assault anyone who was different and that a beating could result in death. He believed the Golden Dawn members had been staring at Fyssas because of his fame in Piraeus as a rapper. Golden Dawn members would never go to a rap concert wearing their party\u2019s emblem. Oplantzakis then questioned the witness about Fyssas\u2019 songs. Hatziefstratiou said he had written the lyrics to \u201cEvangelia\u201d. Asked if Fyssas opposed religion, the witness said he was against religion, but that Fyssas was not. Fyssas supported religion and, above all, people. Replying to the lawyer about what information Roupakias had stopped to ask for on the street, the witness stated that the car\u2019s driver had probably asked if he was on Kefallinias street.<\/p>\n

In his cross-examination by defense lawyer Dimitra Velentza, the witness said that the preliminary statement he had given after suffering a nervous breakdown was incomplete and that he had heard a lot of utterances on the night of the attack that he hadn\u2019t included in it, such as \u201ccome here, you bitch\u201d, \u201ccome here, chickens\u201d, \u201cwe\u2019re going to kill you\u201d and more.<\/p>\n

Replying to questions from defense lawyer Christoforos Tsagkas, the witness said that he had suffered a panic attack just a few hours before giving his preliminary statement. He said he had been given an injection at Nikea General State Hospital and kept for observation for a couple of hours until he recovered. Afterwards, he had gone to Attica General Police Headquarters (GADA) to give his statement. Tsagas tried to question the witness on his statement, but this was disallowed by the presiding judge, who said that it would be read out in its entirety during the proceedings. The presiding judge also disallowed the lawyer\u2019s questions on some pictures he had submitted.<\/p>\n

Questioned by defense lawyer Giorgos Roumpekas, the witness said he wasn\u2019t a person who hesitates to speak out boldly. Fyssas had asked him to take care so they wouldn\u2019t find him dead some day. Hatziefstratiou said this was the first time he had left his friend when things got tough and that one time when a friend had been mugged in front of him, he had intervened to help. Fyssas had been involved in clashes a couple of times but was a person who usually joked around and laughed. When the lawyer asked which of the two looked stronger, Fyssas or Roupakias, the witness replied: \u201cthe one holding the knife\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked by defense lawyer Dimitris Bonis if their cars were being blocked by the others\u2019 car, the witness said the men were not in their car and thus he and his friends would have to walk past them to get to their cars.<\/p>\n

When defense lawyer Antonis Mammis asked if a feeling of panic or anxiety could be expressed through an attack, the witness said this had only happened to him when he was little.<\/p>\n

In reply to defense lawyer Takis Michalolias\u2019 question, the witness said that anyone who saw the men standing over the parked car [with the popped trunk] would have assumed that it was theirs. He hadn\u2019t seen any Golden Dawn emblems on the motorcycle riders but just on those who were on foot. None of them ever addressed by name and he couldn\u2019t say whether anyone else in his group had heard the phrase \u201ckill them\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked by Markou-Nikopoulou if he believed in God, the witness replied: \u201cI believe in God. I don\u2019t believe in your God\u201d.<\/p>\n

The proceedings were adjourned for 9am, Thursday, 12 July 2016, at Athens Appeals Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

77th Hearing, Ceremonial Hall, Athens Court of Appeals, 19 July 2016 1. Court access The courtroom remains to be open to the public on presentation of a state ID card, which is retained by police for the session. There was a large attendance by spectators and press. 2. Presence and representation of defendants Sixteen of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2515","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\/2515","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=2515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/goldendawnwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2516,"href":"https:\/\/goldendawnwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2515\/revisions\/2516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldendawnwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goldendawnwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldendawnwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldendawnwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}