The prosecutor's proposal on whether or not he is guilty of the charges against him relating to the rape of four minors and young men, will be heard today in the courtroom of the Mixed Jury Court of Athens by the former artistic director of the National Theatre Dimitris Lignadis. The prosecution statement comes after a lengthy evidentiary process and marks the countdown to the final decision of the judges and jury.
After the conclusion of the prosecution statement today, there will follow the speeches of the defence and prosecution counsel, which may require at least two more sessions. The judges and the jury will then enter the "orbit" of a verdict, which should be expected by mid-July.
The previous session of the court was preceded by the director's five-hour apology, during which he denied all the charges for which he is on trial. The defendant referred to the complainants one by one, saying that of them he knows only ... 2.5.
In particular, for the first man who accused him, he said that they were "friends" on Facebook, that they had never met in person and that when he realized who he was from the photo display, his head "blew up" with what he read in his complaint, as he said. "I said 'oh the cousin of Hasanakos'. I remember Hasan, with whom I played ball, telling me about his cousin who wanted to be Sakis Rouvas," the defendant said.
Referring to the second man who accused him of sexual abuse, during his apology D. Lignadis said that he knew this person. About his acquaintance with the complainant he said: "In the performance of Bacchae I wanted some people of African descent in the dance. One of the girls (...) had a brother that she brought to rehearsals. Theodore. He used to come with us all the time. One day he says you should meet a friend of mine 'a bit of a fancy personality', who I met at Goodys downtown." The defendant then denied raping the man in question and claimed he never went with him to Epidaurus in 2015, as he claims. "When the interrogator asked me about Epidaurus in 2015 I replied with solid evidence that I did not go," said o and added: "When it was then refolded for the third time (the accuser) that it was in July, I didn't go then either because I don't usually go when I don't have shows. I had intensive rehearsals at the Billy Eliot in 2015. There is no way I went to Epidaurus with these people..."
As for the third complainant, who did not appear in court to support his complaint, D. Lignadis referred to a fabrication a "matrix", as he said. He even said that when he heard about this complaint he laughed and at the same time felt fear. "I was scared at that point with the invention M (the surname of the complainant). The others somehow think I've seen them a few times. That shocked me. I have never seen him. This construction... I have never met him in my life," he said, adding: "I doubt he's even a real person. I expected to see, to come here to see the product of the construction, the construction I stress it against me. I didn't know his face when I saw his picture. The 47-year-old D.M. I have never seen it."
Finally, about his fourth plaintiff, D. Lignadis said that he met him in a square. "He described to me the following creepy thing, that he had no electricity and water at home. And I had told him that if he wanted to read or wash his clothes my house was open. He informed his mother and we even laughed together about the Polish they spoke. P. would come and stay from time to time. He came for the first time in February 2015," he claimed.
-Prosecutor: ...You had a child who was going to school... you did not ask him why he did not go to relatives?
-Accused: I asked him and he said "I have no one, I will continue to go to my dark house. And I tell him to come here and read.
-President: Big responsibility...
-Accused: It is a big responsibility and maybe it was my mistake that I took this responsibility.
Finally, D. Lignadis attributed his involvement in the whole case to a plot that was set up against him, in order, as he said, to hurt the Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni. He also claimed that he had caused rivalries because of certain decisions he had taken as artistic director of the National Theatre and said that when he read that a warrant would be issued for his arrest, he believed it was a "troll", as he said. "The quality of an accusation is shown by exactly who is making it. You will be judged by who all the people who have been wrestling here. These people are not strangers to each other. They created a grid, a cluster, they communicate with each other. They are united in an indivisible unit," the director and actor claimed of the men who accused him. "I may have flattered myself, flirted too much, made extravagant promises, had an exaggerated approach to people but I am not accused here of being a puffer or a vulture. I may have slipped in that area but I was never a rapist," he further said at another point in his plea.
Source: Proto Thema
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