Οne of the convicts for the death of LGBT-activist Zak Kostopoulos has been released on parole just two months after a court in Athens convicted him and the owner of a jewelry shop to 10-year sentence each.
The real estate agent will be released from prison until the next level of trial, at the Court of Appeals.
According to his lawyers on Monday, the request to suspend the sentence of their client has been approved and he will be released under the conditions to appear in the first five days of each month at the local police station and he is banned from leaving the country.
Reason for the release on parole for the 60-year-old convict is health problems of his wife and of two relatives for whom he is in charge.
The mother of Zak Kostopoulos told ANT1 TV that this decision is “unacceptable.”
It is recalled that on May 3, 2022, the real estate agent and the owner of a jewelry shop both were sentenced for the death of Zak Kostopoulos by the Mixed Jury Court of Athens to a 10-year prison sentence each, without the recognition of mitigating factors.
The prosecutor had reportedly asked that the two defendants were not granted parole, but suggested that the jeweler serve his sentence at home because of his age, as he is 77 years old.
As the prosecutor argued during his sentencing, both the jeweler and the broker in their apologies showed no remorse, on the contrary, they appeared to be unaware of the criminal wrongfulness of their act.
“Their behavior and action contain elements of a punitive disposition,” he argued in court, adding that “Zacharias Kostopoulos never attacked the defendants since he was trapped and they were safe. It turned out that they attacked him. From their way of acting and their behavior that no mitigating factor should be recognized.”
PS For whatever the reasons, none of the two convicts is in prison.
