Greek media: Pre-trial detention imposed on all 105 arrested football fans

NEWS 14.08.202308:33
LOUIZA VRADI/REUTERS

A court in Athens on Sunday issued decisions on placing in custody all the 105 men arrested after the 7 August football fan violence outside the AEK stadium in which an AEK supporter lost his life, Greek media reported on Sunday evening after all the arrestees were questioned by three magistrates.

“In the hearings that began on Friday, providing testimonies were 102 Croatian nationals, 2 Greeks, and 1 man of Albanian descent born in Greece. One of the defendants provided testimony to a prosecutor who visited him in hospital, where he is under guard,” the Greek ANA-MPA news agency reported.

All 105 denied involvement in the incidents that carry criminal and misdemeanor charges including setting up a criminal organization and involvement in premeditated murder, the same agency reported adding that  those 105 men will be held in 16 jails throughout Greece.

The fans were arrested following violence that broke out in Athens in the night between 7 and 8 August, ahead of the UEFA Champions League third-qualifying-round match between hosts AEK Athens and the Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb, which was to have been played at AEK’s stadium in the Athens suburb of Nea Filadelfeia.

Michalis Katsouris, a 29-year-old AEK supporter, was killed in the clashes.