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Anastasia Balezdrova

The mixed panel of the court in Athens has postponed for 14 May 2014 the hearing of the case of the arson of Marfin Bank, which killed three of its employees. The bank burnt out due to an arson caused by Molotov petrol bombs on 5 May 2010 when the first mass rally against the Memorandum of financial assistance signed between Greece and the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank took place.

The trial has been postponed at the request of one of the civil plaintiffs who had to attend another case. Individuals who had received subpoenas to appear in order for some of them to be selected for the jury began to gather outside the hall early in the morning. Relatives and friends of the two defendants who wanted to be involved as witnesses or just wanted to morally support them were there too.

They took most of the seats in the crowded hall and were not satisfied with the news about the postponement of the hearing. The charges against the two defendants involve murder, causing an explosion, production and possession of explosives and unsolicited damage to other people’s property.

The indictment presents in detail the actions of Theodoros Sipsas, who is perceived as the perpetrator of the arson of Marfin Bank, and of Pavlos Andreev who, according to the investigators, carried out the attack on "Yiannos" bookshop.

"On 5 May 2010, Theodoros Sipsas, who was in a calm mental state and intentionally acted together with two other unknown perpetrators, killed other people (...), being fully aware of the fact that there were people in the two-storey building at 10 Stadiou Street in Athens. One of the two unknown perpetrators smashed the windows of the facade of the building, the ground floor of which housed the Marfin Bank branch. The other poured a flammable liquid inside the room, on its left side. Theodoros Sipsas then threw inside the building an explosive, a Molotov bomb that caused an explosion and set fire to it. Due to this attack, pregnant Angeliki Papathanasopoulou, Paraskevi Zoulia and Epaminondas Tsakalis lost their lives," reads the indictment.
 
According to the judicial council that has sent the case to court, Sipsas and Andreev had taken part in the rally with other youths. All in the group had carried wooden sticks and sledgehammers, hiding their faces with masks. They had subsequently separated into two subgroups, one of which had set off to "Yiannos" bookshop and the other to the Marfin Bank branch.

The two defendants are not in custody. After their testimony, the investigators have only imposed restrictive measures on them such as a ban on leaving the country and reporting to the police station of residence every month.

Both defendants are denying the charges. Sipsas who is accused of the murder of three employees, has presented to the court pictures from security cameras and other data thus seeking to show that he was elsewhere in central Athens during the attack on the bank.
 
This July three members of the management of Marfin Bank were sentenced for not having taken fire protection measures as regards the building, despite the previous cases of arson, and for not having organised the evacuation of the employees during the fire.