Special forces police guard Epaminondas Korkoneas, who had previously been convicted to life for the deadly shooting of teenager Alexis Grigoropoulos in downtown Athens back in December 2008, attended an appeals court in Lamia, central Greece, on Monday.
The former officer who shot 15-year-old Grigoropoulos dead during an alleged verbal altercation with him and a group of his friends as they were hanging out in Exarchia, got his original sentence reduced to only 13 years in prison.
In the first hearing of the appeal, which began in December 2016, Korkoneas appeared remorseless, telling the court in his opening statement that he was innocent, adding, “I will not apologise to any 15-year-old, Kathimerini reported.
According to the case file, Korkoneas fired twice with his revolver in the direction of the group and one of the bullets rebounded off a cement structure and hit Grigoropoulos in the chest, killing him instantly. The boys death sparked days of street riots and vandalism in Athens with similar rallies and riots taking place on the anniversary of his death each year.
Monday’s ruling was issued on the basis of the new legal code which came into effect on 1 July and means that legally, Korkoneas could request immediate release on the grounds of already having served 11 years of his life sentence, in addition to the time he spent in prison pending his initial trial and conviction.
Zoe Konstantopoulou, Grigoropoulos’ family attorney objected to the ruling, saying that the decision “will arm the hand of the next Korkoneas”.
Meanwhile, the same completely overturned the previous conviction of Vassilis Saraliotis, Korkoneas’ colleague who was with him during the incident due to “insufficient evidence that he was an accomplice in the killing”.
