The case of the murdered Greek journalist Giorgos Karaivaz took another turn on Wednesday as an Athens court found two defendants not guilty, leaving the crime unsolved.
The court, which included both judges and a majority of jurors, found there was insufficient evidence to convict the two brothers, aged 49 and 41, arrested in 2023 as prime suspects of the crime. The acquittal was decided by significant majorities of 5-2 and 6-1.
The prosecutor had previously recommended a guilty verdict for both defendants, who faced charges of premeditated homicide and illegal possession of firearms. The prosecutor argued that the murder was connected to organized crime and suggested that the motive might be related to Karaivaz’s investigative reporting and his plans to expose certain information.
Greek journalist Karaivaz ambushed outside his home
Karaivaz, an experienced crime reporter, who worked for private broadcaster Star TV and news blog bloko.gr, was shot and killed near his home in Athens suburb of Alimos on 9 April 2021.He was shot at least six times with a silenced weapon by two men on a moped.
The Greek journalist was known for investigating organized crime and, although he was on the police beat since the ’90s and had collaborated with several news media as well as run his own website, he had not reported any threats against him or asked for police protection.
All Greek parties expressed their condolences, as well as the president of the European Commission Ursula von her Leyen, who declared that the assassination of a journalist in a European country is a “despicable, cowardly act”, she then expressed her wish that the perpetrators would be found soon.
Karaivaz murder and Press Freedom in Greece
The murder of Karaivaz and the inability of Greek authorities to identify and punish the killers and the masterminds were part of the reason why Greece’s record on the freedom of the press nosedived, according to international media organizations.
In the latest report by the Reporters Without Borders (RSF), 2024 World Press Freedom Index, Greece remains last among EU countries.
Greece comes last among the EU for the third year in a row. Greece is behind Qatar and Thailand, and performing worse than countries such as Niger, Lesotho and Haiti, the press freedom organization’s ranking shows.
Pavol Szalai, the head of RSF’s EU and Balkans desk, said that previous years were marked with grave press freedom violations, such as the murder of Karaivaz in 2021 or the outbreak of a surveillance scandal in 2022.
In April the US State Department’s annual report on Human Rights noted that domestic and international agencies said journalists and media outlets faced pressure to avoid criticizing the government or reporting scandals.
It also noted that the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, urged authorities to ensure “human rights defenders and journalists could work safely and freely.”
Karaivaz has not been the the only journalist to have been murdered in Greece; on July 19, 2010, another prominent Greek journalist, Socrates Giolias, died after he was shot by unknown perpetrators outside his house, in front of his pregnant wife.
