Motive behind shipping firm murders still unclear
In the aftermath of the triple homicide at the offices of the European Navigation shipping firm in Glyfada, southern Athens, last Monday, the motive of the perpetrator, Aristides el Burai, has yet to be clarified. The 76-year-old Egyptian national shot and killed the company’s owner, Maria Karnesi, its managing director, Antonis Vlassakis, and ship captain Ilias Koukoularis, before killing himself.
The motive may emerge from the lifting of privacy on his mobile phone and the statements of family members.
Financial disputes do not at this stage appear to have been the motive as it was revealed that the killer, who worked for the ship-owning family for decades, allegedly had almost 2 million euros in banks in Switzerland and Greece. In addition, the company issued a statement on Tuesday specifying that it had terminated his employment last March, paying him 75,000 euros in compensation.