The prosecutor’s office at the Athens Court of First Instance has brought criminal charges of murder against a 43-year-old Greek man and his 38-year-old German partner over the death of the nine month old baby found inside a suitcase in Kypseli, a district of central Athens.

Specifically, the two have been charged with premeditated murder of a family member, committed as co-perpetrators, illegal possession and use of a firearm, illegal possession of ammunition as co-perpetrators, and giving false testimony, in one case as a continuing offence and in another as a single act.

A further prosecution has also been brought against a 26-year-old Afghan man, who is reported to be in a relationship with the 15-year-old girl found at the house on Thasou Street, for sexual acts against a minor who had not yet turned 12 and continuing after she turned 12. The same defendant is also being prosecuted for giving false testimony and for possession of ammunition.

The case file has now been forwarded to an investigating magistrate, and arrest warrants are expected to be issued in relation to this case as well.

It is worth noting that the three defendants have been giving testimony to the investigating magistrate since the morning, on separate charges relating to drug trafficking and failure to report a death.

In earlier news

According to reports, the 43-year-old man put forward the shocking claim that the knife wounds found on the back of the infant, discovered dead in a suitcase in a flat in Kypseli, were caused as he tried to remove the ice that had formed on the body after it had spent a long time in the freezer, in an attempt to counter evidence indicating that the 9-month-old boy had been murdered.

According to police sources, the Greek man, like the 38-year-old German woman, maintains that the child was born with health problems, died of natural causes in 2023, and was subsequently placed in the freezer.

In an attempt to explain the medical examiner’s findings, which cited more than 10 knife wounds on the infant’s back, the 43-year-old is reported to have said that when they tried to defrost the baby, he struck the ice covering the body with a knife to break it, and that this was the source of the knife marks.

However, police are treating this claim with scepticism, as the Greek man and the woman have contradicted each other over the circumstances in which the baby boy died. The man says he was not at home when the fatal incident occurred, a claim the woman also makes about herself.