The brazen assassination last week of a 43-year-old man, identified only as a professor in the United States of Polish descent, in a usually quiet northeast Athens district continues to baffle Greek police days later.
The victim, whose name has not been officially released, was gunned down in broad daylight in the leafy Aghia Paraskevi district by a lone perpetrator, and as he walked towards the apartment of his ex-wife to see his twin 10-year-old children.
According to reports on Tuesday, the victim’s ex-wife was questioned by police for more than eight hours.
The man, which local media say was a lecturer in northern California – most reports mention Berkeley – had arrived in Greece to attend a court hearing on visitation rights. He reportedly had the right to spend the summers with his children and wanted to take them overseas, probably to the United States or to his native Poland. The same reports have his ex-wife, a Greek national whom he met in the US, as vehemently against the children being taken abroad.
He was fatally hit by five bullets fired from an automatic handgun by a perpetrator whose face was covered.
Police initially identified the man by the keys in his possession, which led to an Airbnb leasing in the central Kolonaki district, with the owner of the property confirming his identity.
Other reports, as aired by the Mega Channel, have the victim’s ex-wife immediately contacting police when she learned he had been shot dead, as well as offering her cellphone for inspection while saying she had “nothing to hide”. She also admitted that there was a legal battle over custody ongoing, while claiming that her now dead ex-husband was “abusive”, among other claims.
Earlier that morning, both the victim and his ex-wife visited a child psychologist.
