It has been almost four years since the death 33-year-old Zak Kostopoulos in downtown Athens, a gay rights activist. Six men are accused of the beating of Kostopoulos during an incident in a jewellery shop in the Greek capital on September 21, 2018.
The men, began testifying on Tuesday, in what is the 13th session of a trial that began last November, Kathimerini reported.
The first two defendants to take the stand were the owner of the jewellery store and the owner of a nearby real estate office who stormed into the shop and together attacked Kostopoulos for reasons that have yet to be identified.
Based on security camera and cellphone footage that has been made public, Kostopoulos smashed his way through a display window to get out of the store and away from his assailants, falling onto the sidewalk outside, where he was seen being repeatedly kicked and punched until a group of nine police officers arrived at the scene.
“Instead of helping, the officers used undue force during his arrest while the victim was down,” the prosecutor said.
Kostopoulos died shortly after while in police custody. According to the coroner, he died of heart failure that was likely induced by the trauma of multiple injuries.
In his testimony, the 77-year-old jewellery shop owner said that the kicks in the head Kostopoulos suffered were “off target/centre” so in his opinion his blows could not have caused his death.
“My blows were not lethal. Those kicks were not meant to cause death,” he insisted.
“The kicks were off target, didn’t hit him good. He died from something else. He wasn’t well in the head. That kid had a problem. You don’t just enter a shop like that.”
When asked by the prosecutor why he did not stop kicking Kostopoulos since he admits he did not steal anything, the jewellery shop owner was unable to give a straight answer.
The 55-year-old real estate owner who joined the attack on Kostopoulos said:
“It was not my fault. It was an unfortunate incident. I did not hit his head. I kicked the air and it came into contact. If I wanted to hit him I would have continued, but I stopped.”
“I thought the people around me were in danger and so I acted instinctively to protect them,” he added.
