Two out of the seven suspects arrested on murder charges related to the torture death of a Hydra restaurant owner were released over the past two months under a more favorable parole regime instituted by the leftist SYRIZA government, one of its first legislative initiatives.

In fact, both men were in possession of their release papers when arrested. One of the pair was paroled on July 14 and the other on June 9 under the so-called “Paraskevopoulos law”, named for the current justice minister under whose supervision the legislation was composed and ratified by a SYRIZA-ANEL majority of MPs.

Video footage, according to police, shows the seven suspects moving around the victim’s taverna on the Saronic Gulf island of Hydra and near his home on the night of the homicide, with the alleged perpetrators clad in … Bermuda shorts and flip-flops.

The generously paroled felons are 30-year-old Igor Tsakmazov and Irakli Katzatzev, 34. The first was convicted of various thefts and the second for thefts and robberies, while the second’s man prison record contained a notation warning against his particularly violent behavior.

All seven of the suspects are Georgian nationals.

Beyond the investigation into the actual crime, the focus will now turn on how the Greek state turned loose the convicts, and on a secondary level, why convicted felons remain in the country and are not directly deported to their country of origin.
According to initial reports, the other five suspects also have criminal records, show no permanent residence nor any occupation.