New details on shooting of six Turks
One of the two suspects arrested in the gangland shooting of six Turks in the seaside town of Artemida on September 11 is said to have provided police with details of the plan, according to a well-placed source who spoke with Kathimerini.
Muharrem K., 28, a Turkish citizen who was arrested Tuesday in his apartment in Agios Dimitrios, southern Athens, told police that the other arrested suspect, 32-year-old Suleiman D., visited him at his home and said he wanted his help for a “job.” He then took him in his car and went to Artemida, some 20 kilometers east of Athens.
On their way there, Suleiman D. revealed to Muharrem K. that his role would be to stay in a car (with the three designated assassins), while Suleiman would pick up the six victims from the place where they were staying in order, ostensibly, to transport them to Athens International Airport.
Instead, they were led to the ambush.
Muharrem has claimed to police that he was not there when the ambush took place because he got the jitters, taking a bus to go back home.
Suleiman D. was arrested at the airport hours after the shootings before he could board a flight to an eastern Aegean island close to the Turkish coast. Police say he was the one who had made arrangements for the victims’ stay in Greece.
Officially, Greek police are looking for a third person, but officers have concluded that the executioners have successfully avoided arrest. A woman who lived near the site of the ambush testified Thursday that she saw three men getting into a black car. She added that one of them went beck to where the bodies lay, apparently to make sure they were dead.
A total of 50 bullets were pumped into the victims. Police found 60 bullet casings on the site, fired from four guns.
Mass shootings of that nature are extremely rare in Greece and police immediately suspected that a foreign criminal organization was involved. They said the victims, who, for some reason, chose Greece as a stopover on their way to Turkey, were likely also involved in crime.
