Trial into 2015 suicide of student Vangelis Giakoumakis starts

The trial into the 2015 suicide of Ioannina Dairy School student Vangelis Giakoumakis began in the northwestern Greek city on Friday with testimony from the 20-year-old’s parents, as well as Nikos Davris, who was studying at the school at the same time as Giakoumakis and said he knew he was being brutally and repeatedly bullied by a group of fellow students.

The purpose of the trial is to determine whether authorities at the school are culpable in Giakoumakis’s death after failing to respond to reports that he was being victimized and that the abuse prompted him to take his own life.

Expected to take the stand in the coming weeks are the school’s director at the time, the head of the dorms where much of the abuse allegedly took place, and a New Democracy deputy who is accused of using his influence to ensure that the alleged victimizers were not taken to task for their actions.