Aggeliki Nikoloulis did not make it to testify as it was scheduled at the hearing on Wednesday 17 April.
The journalist, who had been waiting patiently all day long, seemed particularly daunting in her statements about the lawyers of the accused who methodically attempt to stop her examination.
“I understand those who avoids going to court to testify, it is unacceptable for lawyers to talk to witnesses like that and create such tensions that make it difficult for the work of Justice.” For the negative comments of the accused relatives against her, she told the reporters:
“Better not to talk …”.
Her testimony in the first court was considered crucial, since from the first moment through Tunnel, she had pointed out the suspicious role of the captain’s widow.
The weapon of crime
Crucila was the testimony of a Police Officer who was involved in investigations of the crime.
The chairman asked him to explain to the audience how the weapon used in the crime scene works, as it had been transferred to the court after her request. The witness detailed its function and said it was a small size easy to use weapon, despite its age.
“You fill, you arm, you press …”, he pointed out. He also said that the accused could have handled the gun as she was found herself often at the house where the crime was committed.
The lawyer of the victim’s family, Mr Alexis Kougias, said:
“While for the first time the crime weapon appeared in court, the defendants’ lawyers claimed it was difficult to use, and she told the court that she had never seen it in her life. I wonder how the defense side is getting to know that it is a difficult weapon, while the accused refuses she had seen it … ”
The witness, responding to related questions from the Chair, said the authorities’ suspicions did not immediately turn to the victim’s wife and there was a general belief that the captain had committed suicide. The victim’s wife was not examined for whether she had a gunpowder in her hand or a trace of wrestling on her body.
He, along with other colleagues, had a mandate to collect data, said they did not find any extra help from Koilada society, which he called closed. All the information they were able to collect, they spoke of quarels between the couple. Indeed, there was a fight between them the night before the crime.
The research did not reveal elements of rivalry between the victim and somebody else. Then there was an ace witness who said that just before the shots were heard, a woman’s voice was heard asking for mercy. A victim’s friend was blocked as security cameras seemed to be at the time in question elsewhere.
He stressed that the accused entered the frame when she appeared on Angeliki Nikolouli’s TV show. The police quickly concluded that he spoke accurately about a fuction story, a “poem” she had made in her mind about what she had done on the day in question.
“Her mother told her not to sign …”
Intensity was caused to the court from the defense side when the witness was asked for the day of confession. As said, it was then considered appropriate by the authorities to bring in the accused for clarification.
“I stayed in the room for surveillance, and my colleagues considered the evidence and the contradictions she had committed.” When she could no longer be justified, she confessed that she had committed the crime and asked for a prosecutor who arrived, later that day, colleagues had called also for her mother and sister to file a supplementary testimony. They told the she has confessed and they left he said.
“Why do you claim that while she confessed she refused to sign her confession?”, the lawyer asked the witness.
“Because of a phone call from her mother, who sounded very loud to tell her not to sign,” the policeman replied.
Then the witness was asked by the lawyer of the accused why the owner of the house of the crime and friend of the victim did not come to the target of the suspects. The witness replied that he had not shown his involvement in hearing telephone conversations. Then there was a stir in the audience, and the defendant’s reaction was intense, as he said these talks were not in the file case.
There was a panic as the President told the witness that he had finished a while the defense attorney was still asking him questions.
Then the attorneys of the defendant filed a lawsuit against the witness with suspicion of guilt for perjury.
The trial will continue on May 17, while Angeliki Nikolouli will go back to Nafplio to testify on 22nd of the same month.
The defense side submitted a request, for the mother, father, and sister of the accused to testify, as well as neighbors of the owner of the house where the crime committed.
More than twenty witnesses will be examined by the headquarters.
The chronicle of the case
On December 8, 2014, Thanasis Lambrou, a 42-year-old father of a juvenile girl, was found deadly hit in a pool of blood in the courtyard of a friend’s house. The revolver with which he was shot belonged to the same friend and owner of the house. The scene of the crime was set to resemble suicide, something the local police authorities did not understand from the beginning and accepted this version with summary procedures. The victim’s sister and his family have never been convinced of the whole scene. The poor cohabitation of the captain with his wife and the extramarital relationships she suspected they had, made them look for the truth in the “Light at the Tunnel”. The on-site research of the show, the presence of the wife in Tunnel and the testimonies of the victim’s friends were highly revealing.
At dawn on Friday, July 24, the widow confessed the murder of her husband, Thanassis Lambrou, in the presence of a public prosecutor, but then took it back, refusing to sign it.
After repeated postponements and tensions with the defendants’ lawyers who turned to even the court seat, the conviction came.
After about four weeks of an adventurous hearing, the captain’s husband was unanimously guilty of manslaughter by intent.
The Court decided to send the copies of the case file to the Prosecutor of Nafplion. After some time, the Nafplion Prosecutor’s Office ordered an investigation into whether or not a third person was involved in the case, which is still being examined.
See frame – frame all the developments and deep tunnel research around the case, here.
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