Epaminondas Korkoneas, a Greek cop and murderer of Alexis Grigoropoulos, was released from prison today. His release follows the verdict of an appeals court in Lamia, central Greece, delivered yesterday. The court upheld the conviction of Korkoneas for the deadly of shooting Grigoropoulos , but reduced his sentence from life to 13 years. He was released after serving the most of the reduced sentence. He is not a subject to a parole or any other restriction.

Korkoneas, then a police special guard, shot and killed 15-year old Alexis in Athens district of Exarcheia on 6th December 2008, following a verbal interaction. The shocking killing triggered a widespread uprising across Greece, with solidarity actions held worldwide, including in London.

During the first hearing of the appeal in December 2016, Korkoneas told the court in his opening statement that he was innocent, adding, “I will not apologize to any 15-year-old”.

Vasilis Saraliotis, the second police special guard officer involved in the murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos, was released on bail in 2012.

Image: Tzavella street, Alexandros Grigoropoulos’s murder spot. Credit: Badseed, CC BY-SA 4.0