Luqman killer says he acted in the heat of the moment

One of the two men convicted of murdering migrant laborer Shehzad Luqman as he was cycling to work near central Athens in January 2013 denied charges of a planned attack, saying he was “acting in the heat of the moment” when he stabbed the 27-year-old six times.

Testifying in the ongoing trial against Golden Dawn, Christos Stergiopoulos – released after serving one-third of his 21-year sentence – also denied any involvement in the far-right party, saying that he and Dionysis Liakopoulos attacked Luqman over a “misunderstanding which, unfortunately, ended as it did.”

He added that he had not intended to kill Luqman, saying that if he had, he would have put more pressure on the knife. He claimed Liakopoulos dealt the lethal blow.

Stergiopoulos also denied that the attack was racially motivated, saying that he could have mistaken Luqman “for a Greek, even though his skin was a little dark.”