Ex-police officer back behind bars over teen killing
A former police officer convicted for the December 6, 2008 murder of teenager Alexis Grigoropoulos in central Athens was taken back to prison on Friday, following a decision by the Supreme Court challenging his early release.
Under the decision, Epameinondas Korkoneas, a special guard who was off-duty at the time of the incident, will have to face new sentencing for shooting and killing the 15-year-old who was hanging out with friends in the downtown district of Exarchia on what was a Saturday night.
The development comes after Supreme Court prosecutor Vassilis Pliotas challenged a 2019 decision by a court of appeals to commute Korkoneas’ sentence from life plus 15 years to 13 years and to order his release for time served on the grounds that he had a clean criminal record up until the time of the shooting.
That decision had been based on revisions to the criminal code passed by the previous government, which redefined how mitigating factors are accounted for.
Pursuant to Pliotas’ recommendation for the appeals court’s ruling to be overturned, the Supreme Court plenary decided on Friday that Korkoneas’ unblemished past should not have been recognized as a mitigating factor.
