50th Hearing, Three-Member Criminal Appeals Court, Women’s Wing, Korydallos Prison, Athens, 23 February 2016

I. Access to the court

The courtroom remains open to the public upon presentation of a state ID card, which is retained by court authorities for the duration of the session. During today’s proceedings there were no spectators due to the declared lawyers’ strike.

ΙΙ. Proceedings

During today’s proceedings the civil action lawyers present were Tzelis, Papadopoulou, and Kabagiannis, and present on the side of the defense were Roussopoulos, Michalolias Georgios, Pantazis, Kontovazenitis, Tsagas, and Roubekas.
Tzelis, one of the civil action lawyers, stated that he renewed his request for a waiver from his bar association, which did not respond to his request and referred him to session of Wednesday, 24 February 2016, at 16:00. The presiding judge stated that the important thing was for the trial to proceed in a timely manner. The civil action lawyer Kabagiannis stated that there are two issues. Initially the court had requested that the judges to be allowed to preside exclusively at the trial in question, a request that had been denied. And secondly, there was the matter of the trial’s location, and the need to reopen the discussion of moving it elsewhere. And finally, regardless of the decision of the bar association, and because statements had been made about the speed of the trial’s progress, the seat should advise, so that in the future no such statements would be made.

The presiding judge adjourned until Thursday, 25 February 2016, at 10:30 am.