All four Kalogeropoulos murder suspects plead not guilty
All four men who are suspected of killing Thanasis Kalogeropoulos pleaded not guilty to all charges on Thursday.
The four, aged 44, 41, 22, and 21 years old, were brought before the Limassol criminal court under high security measures, and asked to enter a plea to charges of premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit murder, possession and transportation of a firearm and ammunition, and vehicle theft and arson.
The 22-year-old suspect has also been charged with aiding and abetting a murder.
In addition to the four suspects all pleading not guilty, one of the suspects’ lawyers said an appeal has been lodged at the Supreme Court to annul the order to allow investigators to access telecommunications data from the suspects’ phones.
With the Supreme Court’s decision pending, the date for the trial’s next hearing has been set for June 11. Until then, all four defendants will remain under remand at the central prison.
Kalogeropoulos was gunned down at the end of October on his way to his morning swim in Limassol. A post-mortem revealed that he had been shot 10 times.
He was “well known to authorities” – a phrase commonly used by police to indicate he had previously been involved in criminal activity.
He was shot at close range from a vehicle by two people with a pistol and a Kalashnikov, before the assailants fled, set fire to their getaway vehicle, and then escaped on a motorcycle.
Police believe the 22-year-old suspect was the mastermind behind the plan, while the 41-year-old is suspected of being one of the two who fired the shots. The 44-year-old owns the house at which the murder was allegedly planned, while the 21-year-old was allegedly riding the motorcycle.
The trial had initially been set to begin in January, but was postponed after the four defendants initially requested that they be tried in Nicosia rather than in Limassol.
It was then postponed for a second time in February, with the four defendants’ lawyers arguing that their clients were not prepared to respond to the charges due to the recent delivery of evidence.