ATHENS — A Greek court on Wednesday acquitted two men charged in the 2021 murder of crime reporter Giorgos Karaivaz, a case that sparked widespread concern about press freedoms and the safety of journalists in the country.
Karaivaz, 52, was gunned down outside his house at 2 p.m. in the southern Athens suburb of Alimos as he stood beside his car on his way back from work.
The court found there was insufficient evidence to convict the two suspected hitmen, brothers aged 49 and 41.
Karaivaz had connections within the Greek underworld and with the corrupt police officers associated with it. He was a key witness in a 2015-2017 National Intelligence Service investigation into the involvement of police officials in mafia gangs profiting from illegal brothels and casinos.
“It’s a sad week of impunity for crimes committed against Greek journalists,” said Pavol Szalai, head of the EU and Balkans desk at press watchdog Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “We call on the Greek justice system to do everything possible to put an end to this unbearable impunity, first and foremost for the despicable murder of the journalist.”
Wednesday’s acquittal comes just a day after a Supreme Court prosecutor cleared the Greek intelligence service of responsibility in a wiretapping scandal dubbed “Predatorgate.”
During the trial of the brothers last week it was revealed that Karaivaz may have had a connection to some figures linked to Predatorgate. The murdered journalist purportedly exchanged text messages with two key figures that resigned due to the scandal: the former head of Greece’s spy service, and the prime minister’s former chief of staff. Their alleged text exchanges were put on a CD to be displayed in court, but the disc was “accidentally destroyed by a stapler,” according to Greek media reports.
Freedom of the press has been increasingly under threat in Greece in recent years. The country was the last-ranked member of the EU in RSF’s 2024 World Press Freedom Index; Karaivaz’s unsolved murder was a major factor in the country’s low ranking.
In February, the European Parliament issued a resolution denouncing what it described as a hostile media environment in Greece that posed a “very serious” threat to EU values. The European Commission, meanwhile, said in its annual rule of law report published last week that Greece had made progress in adopting safeguards to improve the protection of journalists, but called for additional reforms.
Brothers suspected of murdering Greek crime reporter acquitted
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