Court upholds double life sentence for man who poisoned two women

A Mixed Jury of Appeal in Thessaloniki upheld on Tuesday the two life sentences imposed on a 51-year-old university lecturer for the fatal poisoning by arsenic of his wife and her grandmother several years ago.

The judges unanimously found him again guilty of double premeditated murder, while they did not recognize any mitigating circumstances. The sentence of two life terms means 25 years of actual imprisonment.

According to the indictment, the geology lecturer at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki gradually poisoned his 34-year-old wife and her 85-year-old grandmother in August 2013.

Authorities had not initially suspect foul play in the deaths and suspicions of poisoning were confirmed only after the two women’s bodies were exhumed and extensive laboratory tests were run. The geologist was unanimously convicted by the court of first instance in March 2018. 

The former lecturer returned to prison where he is being held since January 2016.