Four found guilty of murder of Thanasis Kalogeropoulos

All four defendants in the case of the murder of Thanasis Kalogeropoulos were found guilty by the Limassol criminal court on Wednesday.

The four, aged 46, 44, 24, and 23 years old, were found guilty “prima facie” – meaning that the court has decided that they contributed to the crime, and that individual responsibilities regarding Kalogeropoulos’ death and the severity of the punishments they will face will be decided at later court hearings.

In specifics, there are a total of 11 charges on the table against all four defendants, with the most severe being premeditated murder. If any or all of the four are found guilty of premeditated murder, they will serve a mandatory life sentence.

Additionally, the 24-year-old faces a charge of aiding and abetting the murder.

At the end of the next stage of the trial, they will be sentenced, with the first hearing of that next stage set to take place on February 24.

The court’s decision on Wednesday pointed out that closed-circuit camera footage, telecommunications data, information stored on mobile phones, and other, similar evidence had been gathered against the four.

It also stated that evidence against each of the four was gathered separately and that none of the evidence complied against one defendant contradicted evidence compiled against another.

In total, it said, 75 witnesses testified, while 555 pieces of evidence were submitted during the course of the trial.

Kalogeropoulos was gunned down at the end of October 2023 while on his way to his morning swim in Limassol. A post-mortem revealed that he had been shot 10 times.

He was “well known to authorities” – a phrase commonly used by police to indicate he had previously been involved in criminal activity.

He was shot at close range from a vehicle by two people with a pistol and a Kalashnikov, before the assailants fled, set fire to their getaway vehicle, and then escaped on a motorcycle.

Police investigations into the matter had led them to the conclusion that the 24-year-old was the mastermind behind the plan, while the 44-year-old is suspected of being one of the two who fired the shots.

The 46-year-old owns the house at which the murder was allegedly planned, while the 23-year-old was allegedly riding the motorcycle.