The defendants in the kidnapping and murder case of 26-year-old Marios Papageorgiou have been convicted after almost two years of investigations.
Petros Michaleakos, the mastermind of the kidnapping, was jailed for life plus 23 years and his wife, Paraskevi Sioutalou, will serve an 18-year sentence.
“The only motive of Michaleakos was to extract ransom money from Marios’ mother,” said the prosecutor in her proposal. She also said that his wife played a key role in the kidnapping.
“His wife coordinated by telephone all Michaleakos’ actions and used her friendship with Marios’ mother to extract information on the case,” the prosecutor added.
Apart from the two main defendants, the court issued suspended sentences of 2-6 years to four more defendants for their involvement in the case, while two other defendants were acquitted.
The mother of Marios Papageorgiou, Varvara, was devastated after the hearing, and burst into tears in the courtroom, asking for her child back.
According to the police file, Michaleakos called the victim on August 10, 2012 while he was in his cottage with his mother. After the phone call, Papageorgiou left the house in a hurry and then he went missing. On the same day, the defendants called his 75-year-old mother and asked her to pay 620,000 euros ransom to get her son back alive.
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