Greek Journalist Socrates Giolias Assassinated

Athens journalist Socrates Giolias was killed by unidentified individuals at dawn on Monday, who riddled him with bullets outside his home in the Ilioupolis suburb of Athens.

According to an initial statement to police by his wife, an unknown man rang the doorbell of their apartment at about 5:20 a.m. and when Giolias opened the door told him that someone was attempting to steal his car outside the apartment building.

When Giolias descended to the building entrance where he had parked his car, he was shot several times, dying on the spot.

The perpetrators, tentatively believed to be three, fled in a car.

Police have collected some 20 cartridges from the scene.

At around 7:00 a.m. a burned car was found approximately 1.5 kilometers from the murder scene, and police believe it was the killers’ getaway car. The car had been stolen from nearby Alimos two days earlier (Saturday, July 7) and its theft had been reported by the owner to the local police station.

The motives of the killing are still unknown, and police are examining all possibilities.

According to an eye-witness account, the perpetrators were at least three and were wearing uniforms, possibly of a security company or the municipal police.

The weapon(s) used in the attack was(were) a 9mm pistol(s).

Giolias’ wife, who has suffered a strong shock, and the couple’s young child were in the apartment at the time of the killing.