For a number of offences - five felonies and seven misdemeanors - the three accused in the kidnapping of 41-year-old businessman Giorgos Kyparissis will plead today before an investigator.
The prosecution brought criminal charges against the three perpetrators, a 41-year-old man, his 39-year-old partner and a 34-year-old man, on a case-by-case basis for the following offences: Formation, membership and direction of a criminal organisation, kidnapping, joint extortion, robbery in conspiracy, dangerous bodily harm in conspiracy and assault, arson with intent, theft in conspiracy and assault, carrying weapons in conspiracy, possession of weapons in conspiracy and alone, aggravated possession of weapons in conspiracy, breach of authority and violence against employees.
The perpetrators had kidnapped the businessman and held him in their hideout for 65 days. During all this time they had been in contact with his family and initially demanded a ransom of €1 million. However, they subsequently dropped the demands with the businessman's family paying them a sum of 800,000 euros. When this money was paid to them, the perpetrators released the businessman in the early hours of last Friday 4 March.
Describing to journalists what he experienced at the hands of his kidnappers, the businessman revealed that the perpetrators immobilised him in a black jeep pretending to be police officers. "I don't know if there were many people. They pretended to be policemen. They spoke Greek clearly. They came down from my house, told me to get down, handcuffed me, put a hood on me and put me in a car," said George Kyparissis. He said that he never saw the faces of his kidnappers, as he wore a hood all the time and noted that the perpetrators had shaved him.
The leader of the criminal organization that had been set up to kidnap the businessman is allegedly the 34-year-old defendant, who testified in preliminary interrogation that he had been monitoring the posts of G. Kyparissis on social media and formed the impression that he was financially comfortable. Indeed, the police authorities found about 300,000 euros of the 800,000 euros that was the total amount of the ransom paid by the family of the businessman, in the house of this defendant.
Before the police, the 34-year-old allegedly claimed that after his release from prison in 2020 he was facing financial problems and that he decided in December 2021 to organize the kidnapping of G. Kyparissis. Kyparissis, because - as he said - the victim showed through his social media posts that he was financially robust. "I got out of prison in 2020, I needed money. Since my release I have not been able to reintegrate into society," he reportedly told police officers, but did not respond on the identity of his other accomplices, whom authorities are seeking.
Source: Proto Thema
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