GREECE: He broke his life sentence and the slayer with the sledgehammer is released from prison

He savagely hit his 41-year-old wife with a hammer, screwdriver and ended her with a sledgehammer. Nine years later, the heinous crime that had shocked Manolada of Ilia and the whole of Greece "came to life" yesterday in the hall of the Mixed Jury Court of Appeal of Patras.

The 54-year-old foreign spouse killer, who was sentenced at first instance by the Mixed Jury Court of Zakynthos to the maximum sentence of life imprisonment for murder with deceit against his wife without mitigating circumstances, sat on the bench.

He attributed the murder to a reduced charge and an increased amount of alcohol consumption to a point where he had no control over his actions and asked the appellate court for leniency. He managed to convince ordinary and lay judges, who found him guilty of manslaughter against his wife, but recognized him with two mitigations, following a proposal by the Prosecutor of the Headquarters and the defense.

In particular, the Court accepted the mitigating circumstances of his previous legal life and subsequent good behavior during his detention and imposed a total sentence of 14 years of temporary imprisonment (as proposed by the Prosecutor).

Upon hearing the decision, standing in front of the Chair, he warmly thanked justice for its decision. Now, the accused will be released from prison as he has already set the statutory detention limit along with the per diems he has already done, with the joy of having his face painted.

"I am a grandfather, I have grandchildren in my country and I have never seen them," he told the court, asking for his sentence to be reduced, saying he had no intention of killing his wife and had no sense of his actions.

According to flamis.gr, no witnesses appeared in court, as his children are in Romania, while the first instance testimonies were read.

The heinous crime was revealed on the morning of January 6, 2013, in Manolada, Ilia, when the 41-year-old Romanian woman was found dead with sharp knife wounds in the stump where they were staying.

The lifeless body of a 41-year-old woman from Romania was found by her brother and a friend, who had lost track of her and had been looking for her for two days. She was finally found in the hut where she lived with her husband, in a tragic situation, as she was brutally beaten, naked from the waist down and with multiple injuries (broken upper and lower limbs, bruises, etc.).

The couple, who had two daughters in Romania, aged 23 and 24 at the time, had come to Greece five years ago to find work in the fields of Ilia in the hope of a better life. Unfortunately, however, the 41-year-old was to die tragically from her husband's attack, with the fatal occurring after being hit by the sledgehammer, while he himself confessed to his act.

in.gr