#fourthiotis

Two weeks after Star TV crime reporter Giorgos Karaivaz was gunned down outside his home, Kostas Vaxevanis, the owner of the newspaper Documento, reported on 24 April that he had grounds for believing he was also the target of a “murder contract.” Like Karaivaz, Vaxevanis has also done a great deal of investigative reporting on the police and corruption in Greece.

Karaivaz had investigated a group of criminals and police officers who were allegedly extorting money from nightclubs in exchange for protection, while Documento recently covered a case of police corruption.

And like Karaivaz, Vaxevanis had personally investigated the decision to provide controversial TV presenter Menios Fourthiotis with police protection, which was withdrawn after it was reported that the threats against Fourthiotis had been staged. Suspected of links with the murder contract against Vaxevanis, Fourthiotis was arrested on 27 April on a charge of “criminal conspiracy.”

Despite the Greek prime minister’s promise of a “swift investigation” into Karaivaz’s murder, the authorities have so far simply established that it was linked to the organized crime circles about which he reportedly had sensitive information. They have also identified the person who threatened him but have not linked that person to the murder.

A key witness has confirmed in an official testimony to the Greek police that trash-TV presenter Menios Fourthiotis had issued a murder contract against the publisher of Documento newspaper, journalist Kostas Vaxevanis. The testimony fully confirms the information that had reached Vaxevanis: That is, Menios Fourthiotis was in search of people in the underworld to execute a contract of execution against Vaxevanis and another person, but also to shoot his own house, so that he will also be considered a victim and hence, the authorities would place him again under police protection, since it had been removed a few days earlier.

A TV host and publisher has been been initially detained by police and later arrested and is accused for faking an armed attack at his own house after police withdrew protection he received as a private citizen. There have been also allegations of having taken out a contract on the life of a prominent journalist has been arrested on suspicion of forming a criminal organization.

Τhe 35-year-old TV host and two other Greek men who operated as accomplices were arrested on Tuesday.

The TV-man faces charges for 2 felonies and 7 misdemeanors, state-run news agency amna reported.

According to kathimerini, the suspect had himself become news fodder earlier this month, when it was discovered that he enjoyed unwarranted constant police protection because his life was supposedly in danger. The police detail was taken away and a prosecutor is investigating the case.

Last Thursday, the TV-host reported an armed nighttime attack on his house. A police investigation found out that the same gun had been used in an armed attack against police officers on April 16. The two perpetrators were arrested.

The police have also presented evidence of text communications between the accused, including messages on the day of the attack.

At least one of the alleged accomplices has a long criminal record, media reported citing police sources.

Greek police took into custody a fringe TV host who a prominent investigative journalist claimed wanted him killed and had orchestrated an attack on police and his own home to justify getting police protection.

Menios Fourthiotis was to be questioned over the accusations made by Kostas Vaxevanis that came three weeks after the shooting death of well-known crime journalist Giorgos Karaivaz, gunned down outside his home.

Police raided Fourthiotis' home in a northern Athens suburb, said Kathimerini as Vaxevanis said he was making public the alleged death threat to protect himself in the wake of Karaivaz's murder.

Fourthiotis, who had a dozen-strong police bodyguard pulled after outrage it was given because he complained about a fire outside the TV station where he works, will be probed after the two incidents involving firearms near his home.

He is also being investigated in connection with the complaint from Vaxevanis who said that he had received a tipoff from a source suggesting that Fourthiotis had put out a contract against him, the report added.

Investigators reportedly found forensic evidence connecting Fourthiotis and the shooting of an assault rifle in the air outside his home and the attack on a police motorcycle unit also nearby the same night.

The report said police found a bullet casing and DNA allegedly linking the two incidents and that one of two suspects arrested in the attack in police has a criminal record and was tied to protection rackets.

Vaxevanis also suspects Fourthiotis of being behind an attempted break-in at the offices of the newspaper he publishes, Documento which came as Reporters Without Borders issued a report critical of media freedom in Greece under the New Democracy government.