Retrial of Bakari Henderson murder rescheduled for March 11
The retrial over the murder of 22-year-old Bakari Henderson, an American tourist who was beaten to death by Serbs on the island of Zakynthos in July 2017, started on Wednesday with the testimony of his father, Phil.
Before the hearing, defense lawyers asked the court to reject the prosecutor’s appeal which the judges rejected for only one of the seven defendants.
Phil Henderson was the only one to testify at the Appeals Court of Patras on Wednesday as no other witnesses were able to attend. The hearing was rescheduled for March 11.
The attack was captured in a video as the 22-year-old was beaten to death by a mob outside a bar in 2017. Nine of the alleged attackers went on trial and six were found guilty of deadly assault, but not murder. A prosecutor then argued that the original criminal treatment of the case was not commensurate with the gravity of the crime and ordered a retrial.
The case has atrracted the interest of US Vice President Kamala Harris who raised the issue of the trial with Greek Premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis during a brief meeting in Munich last weekend.
Five years has passed since the murder of the African American and justice has yet to be delivered in this racially motivated crime to the chagrin of US authorities.
