TV host remanded as police probe contract killing claims

A minor television celebrity who made the news recently by claiming that his life was being threatened and he needed police protection, was remanded for questioning on Tuesday following a police raid on his home in the leafy northern Athens suburb of Dionysos.

Menios Fourthiotis, a morning show host on New Epsilon TV, is being questioned for his suspected involvement in two incidents involving firearms that took place on Friday night in the vicinity of his home.

He is also being investigated in connection with a complaint filed last week by prominent journalist Kostas Vaxevanis who said that he had received a tipoff from a source suggesting that Fourthiotis had put out a contract against him.

With regards to the first matter, investigators on Tuesday reportedly found forensic evidence pointing to a connection between Fourthiotis and the shooting of an assault rifle in the air outside the TV host’s home and an attack on a motorcycle police unit in the nearby suburb of Nea Erythrea that same night. This evidence includes a bullet casing and DNA allegedly linking the two incidents. One of the two suspects arrested in the Nea Erythrea incident, meanwhile, is said to have a criminal record and known connections to protection rackets.

Vaxevanis also suspects Fourthiotis of being behind an attempted break-in at the offices of the newspaper he publishes, Documento, which also took place last Friday.