Manos Daskalakis: His lawyer protests why he is late for a decision on Roula Pispirigo

His lawyer, Dimitris Georgakopoulos, is strongly protesting the fact that no decision has yet been taken in the trial on the case of the homicide and attempted homicide of 9-year-old Georgina with her mother accused, which has begun since January 2023. Manos Daskalakis’ lawyer in his statement mentions “the court’s tolerance to the defense delays” by Roula Pispirigo. In detail, Dimitris Georgakopoulos’ statement reads as follows: “While we are very satisfied that the Court is investigating the truth in depth throughout this period, it is unfortunate that, six months after the expiry of the 18-month provisional detention of the accused, a decision has not yet been taken and it is an unpleasant surprise that the court’s tolerance to the delays on the part of the defence has not been taken. Notably, we are approaching the 100 meetings in the audience, in a trial that has lasted over a year (started on 9 January 2023), with the provisional detention of the defendant already expired six months ago (on 30 September 2023), the time during which the decision should already have been made. Clearly, the fact that the defendant is temporarily detained for another case has created a laxity as to the need for timely conduct and completion of the trial. On the one hand, we came to the point of being interrupted because the defense advocate wanted to attend a football match(! ) , and in a day (21/2/2024) that he had agreed to be present in the audience in order to continue his speech. On the other hand, today came the decision of the President of the Court to freeze the prosecution of the main defence advocate Mr. Kouya (who invoked medical reasons why he could not attend on 13/3 and 14/3 and we wish him a speedy recovery and a good return) and to initiate, inoculatory, the argument of his partner and also a defence advocate. It was the President herself who in the trial of 21/2/2024, when Mr. Kouyas chose to attend a football match instead of continuing his speech, had rejected the corresponding proposal/request of the charge support to his partner, saying it is impossible to observe the practices, amid a speech by one advocate, to plead another advocate. Unfortunately, (and) that trial had gone unpracticed and finally Mr. Kuya’s partner spoke today, without it being clear to us what changed since 21.2.24 that we had asked. We strongly protested at the Court of Justice about the obstruction found and expect the next few days to take appropriate initiatives to make progress and complete the trial.”