A court on the island of Lesvos remanded custody to the 78-year-old farmer who shot and wounded a teenager refugee from Syria last week. Together with his family the 16-year-old asylum seeker had sought refuge in the farmer’s land plot to escape violence in the Moria hot spot nearby.
The farmer’s lawyer said that he had no intention to shoot at the boy, he just wanted to scare them off.
The court rejected the lawyer’s request that the man is put under house arrest.
The custody decision was unanimous by judge and prosecutor.
The man has a criminal record and has served already 37 years in prison for two murders. In one case, he stabbed his wife to death in front of their child, in the second case he killed a friend of his.
He has been living alone in his property by the village of Moria ever since he came out of prison.
According to media, the man has tried to use his weapon also in the past to scare off migrants and refugees away from his property.
The farmer had no license for the rifle.
The victim was injured in the head and in the feet and is still hospitalized.
The incident took place in front of his parents and his under-aged brother. The family had arrived on the island two days before the incident.
