The 89-year-old man who on Tuesday morning opened fire at the EFKA offices in Kerameikos and at the Court of Appeal on Loukareos Street in central Athens, injuring a total of five people, has been sent to prison.

The 89-year-old was ordered into pre-trial detention after his today’s apology hearing at the courts of the former Evelpidon School, with the agreement of the investigating magistrate and the prosecutor.

In front of the investigating magistrate, the defendant reportedly repeated what he had said during the preliminary investigation: that he had no intent to kill and that he had been planning the attack for months.

“I had planned before Christmas to go to IKA, to the Court of Appeal and to Strasbourg to shoot, without however wanting to kill anyone. I wanted to do it in winter so I could wear my overcoat and hide the shotgun, but because I kept having things to do and time was passing and I was postponing it, and in a few days it would be May and it would start getting hot and I wouldn’t be able to wear an overcoat, I decided to go,” the accused is reported to have claimed during the preliminary investigation, repeating the same arguments in front of the investigating magistrate.

He also allegedly claimed that he did not want to kill, which is why he shot at the legs, while stating that he acted out of anger caused by the non-issuance of his pension and the degrading treatment he felt he received.

Earlier, upon arriving at the court, the elderly man greeted journalists and camera operators and then went to the investigating magistrate’s office to give explanations for the felonies of attempted serial homicide, aggravated illegal possession of weapons inside a judicial building, and aggravated illegal possession of a firearm.

The 89-year-old was also charged with the misdemeanours of continuous unlawful possession of a hunting weapon, continuous illegal possession of ammunition and cartridges, illegal possession of weapons, repeated disruption of public service operations, and threats to commit crimes.