Prints mix-up leads to wrong arrest for 1997 hit

Greek police are believed to have mixed up the fingerprints of the suspects in two separate cases, leading to the arrest of the wrong man in connection with the murder of an infamous Russian hitman and his girlfriend in Athens in 1997.

The 48-year-old Greek national from Georgia was arrested at Thessaloniki’s international airport on Tuesday on suspicion of being the mastermind behind the killing of 36-year-old Alexander Solonik and 21-year-old model Svetlana Kotova.

But according to the latest evidence, he shares the suspected mastermind’s name and date of birth, while their fathers’ names are the same too.

It was also understood that police had mistakenly added the fingerprints of the 48-year-old, who had been arrested in the past on drug-related offenses, to the file of the suspected mastermind. 

The actual killers of the couple were arrested in a police operation in Spain in 2000.