The 46-year-old woman is being taken to prison for the deadly arson attack on Marfin, following her plea. The defendant denies the charges against her, and the investigating judge and prosecutor have determined, following the conclusion of the plea hearing, that the woman—a permanent resident of the United Kingdom in recent years— should be remanded in custody.
According to the reasoning behind the decision, the judicial authorities decided to remand the 46-year-old in custody, as they consider her “particularly dangerous and committed to the group’s plan of action” that carried out the arson attack on the Marfin branch, according to ERT.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
GSI: Navtex issuance for seabed surveys is “a matter of days”
The 46-year-old, following a deadline she had been given last Friday, was brought before the investigating judge on Tuesday morning (August 11). Earlier, her defense attorney, Kostas Papadakis, submitted a multi-page defense brief to the investigating judge, according to which the defendant denies the charges against her (a role supporting the perpetrators). The defense argues that there is no evidence proving with certainty her presence near the Marfin Bank at the time of the arson. The 46-year-old then answered the investigating judge’s questions.
Before the 46-year-old’s testimony, her sister testified as a witness, stating that during a demonstration, she was in the area in question with the defendant, but that they had merely passed by the Marfin building and were not there at the time of the attack.
In her defense, she maintained that she is innocent and that, while she participated in the demonstration, she had no connection to the incidents; she met her co-defendants through the anarchist community.
The 46-year-old’s defense team noted that the evidence from the police investigation—based on the analysis of photographs—does not lead to a definitive identification but only to limited support for a resemblance. At the same time, they argue that the same evidence had been examined in 2022 and had led to the case being closed.
According to reports, the 46-year-old woman has appointed expert witness G. Karathanasis as her technical advisor, who concludes in his report that an analysis of the digital evidence included in the case file reveals no difference from that of early 2022. At this stage of the investigation, he has proposed two additional defense witnesses.
The 46-year-old’s attorney announced plans to file an appeal against her pretrial detention
The 46-year-old’s attorney, Kostas Papadakis, announced that “in the coming days we will file an appeal against the pretrial detention order and will continue until she is fully exonerated, which I hope will happen as soon as possible.”
When asked about the 46-year-old’s reaction upon hearing the decision, he noted that “as you can imagine, it was heartbreaking, because she’s thinking both of herself and her child who is in London, and we don’t know how this will play out.” Regarding the other two defendants who have been remanded in custody, Mr. Papadakis said that “he knew them only by sight. I’ll say it again: you know she’s innocent and has absolutely no connection to the events and acts attributed to her. And the decision, of course, above all else, surprised her because of its inconsistency with the legal facts and the evidence in the case.”
Regarding whether there is any new evidence beyond that from 2022—when the defendant was re-examined in connection with the same case—her defense attorney stated that “the only new evidence, as you know, is an anonymous email, which, aside from being inadmissible as an anonymous source for the purpose of reopening the case, is also vague, because it contains no specific description of criminal acts, nor does the author clarify where he or she obtained this information. Moreover, the 2022 investigation was also based on an anonymous telephone complaint, which—using the same evidence and the same photographic material—resulted in an acquittal by the prosecutor.”
For its part, as she explained, the defense “submitted the technical report by the digital evidence analyst and professor at the School of Judges, Mr. George Karathanasis, which proves that there is no match or resemblance between the defendant and the so-called ‘Person C’ in the photograph, with whom the police are making a comparison. […] She was at the demonstration, just like so many other people. She had passed by Marfin more than half an hour before the clashes began, and by 1:30 p.m. she was already leaving Syntagma Square with her sister and another friend to go home.”
The 46-year-old was extradited to Greece a few days ago, following the completion of her extradition proceedings by the British authorities. Her attorney, Kostas Papadakis, has argued that there is no laboratory evidence confirming that the individual in question is his client. At the same time, according to him, even the relevant report by the Criminal Investigation Division does not conclude with absolute certainty that the woman was at the scene in question.
The arrests in the Marfin case were made following a new police investigation, 16 years after the tragedy. The case file includes evidence that was re-evaluated by the relevant units of the Hellenic Police and subsequently forwarded to the courts.
The 46-year-old Greek woman was arrested at London’s Gatwick Airport following the activation of an Interpol Red Notice issued by Greek police authorities.
Appearing before the Westminster Magistrates’ Court, waived all legal remedies available to her under Anglo-Saxon law in order to prevent the execution of the Interpol Red Notice for her extradition to Greece, accepted the Greek police authorities’ request for her extradition, and signed a letter in which she pledges not to change her mind.
The two 42-year-olds accused of being accomplices in the same case have already been remanded in custody. One is being held at the Malandrino Prison and the other at the Nafplio Prison.
It should be recalled that the arson attack on May 5, 2010, resulted in the deaths of employees at the Marfin Bank branch on Stadiou Street: Angeliki Papathanassopoulou, who was four months pregnant, Paraskevi Zoulia, and Epameinondas Tsakalis.
Source: Proto Thema
