Court upholds conviction over 2017 tax officer’s murder

Judges and a jury at an Athens court of appeals on Tuesday upheld a verdict by a lower tribunal sentencing a man convicted of the 2017 murder of a 32-year-old female tax officer to two life terms in prison.

According to the case file, Manolis Soropidis, 62, attacked and repeatedly stabbed Dora Zemberi at Athens’ Second Cemetery in October 2017 while she was visiting the grave of a friend.

The defendant, a habitual drug user, had originally said he attacked Zemberi to rob her and had made off with 5 euros from her purse and her mobile phone, which he sold for 20 euros.

Later, however, Soropidis claimed that he had been paid 30,000 euros to kill Zemberi by an unnamed individual for reasons related to her professional capacity as a tax officer.

These claims were dismissed by the courts for a lack of evidence, though Zemberi’s father told reporters outside the Athens courthouse on Tuesday that the family is conducting its own inquiries into the matter.

He said that his daughter, whose job included investigating serious cases of money laundering, had been threatened on several occasions prior to her murder.