Policeman at Golden Dawn trial asks for protection
A police officer who was at the scene of the fatal stabbing of leftist rapper Pavlos Fyssas by Golden Dawn member Giorgos Roupakias just over two years ago appealed for protection for himself and his family during a court appearance on Wednesday, saying he has received threats by telephone.
Testifying in the ongoing trial of the neo-Nazi party’s leadership and dozens of its supporters, Dimitris Kouretzis, one of several police officers dispatched to Keratsini, near Piraeus, on the night of Fyssas’s murder in September 2013, recounted a conversation with Roupakias.
Kouretzis told the court he found Roupakias sitting in his car, smoking a cigarette, close to the scene of the attack.
He said Roupakias initially claimed ignorance when questioned about the night’s events but, after the officer found a bloody knife near the back of the car, he admitted: “I did it. Don’t tell anybody. I’m one of you.” Asked what he meant by that, he answered, “From Golden Dawn,” according to Kouretzis, who described Roupakias as “calm and sober” that night.
The officer also described to the court the dying moments of 34-year-old Fyssas who, he said, bore stab wounds to his heart and under one armpit.
Kouretzis said he desperately tried to get help for Fyssas, calling for an ambulance “at least 10 times.”
