Court hands down 18-month jail sentence to student who attacked professor

An Athens lower court has convicted and handed down an 18-month jail sentence to a university student of the Philosophy Faculty for an attack against Professor Angelos Syrigos in the courtyard of Athens’ Panteion University, in February, 2017.

Though it is not a suspended sentence, the convicted student can buy out the jail sentence for five euros per day, or approximately 2,700 euros.

The student denied participation in the attack, which was carried out by three individuals, who cursed at and beat the professor. He claimed he was implicated in the case because that day he had lent his roommate his motorcycle, which was found on the scene.

The roommate has already convicted for participation in the same attack, and received a 12-month, suspended jail sentence.

The third culprit remains unknown.

In court, Syrigos recognised the man who received the 18-month sentence as the person who attacked him with a spray paint canister. He said that all three culprits kicked him in the head.

Syrigos testified that the three attacked him when he called them to task for spray-painting a campus building.

“I asked him why he was doing that and he replied, ‘What do you care? Is it your property?” Syrigos testified.

“At first we were speaking calmly. Then two others approached and one of them told me to leave. The man accused today was on my right. His friend shoved me and then I felt a strong strike with the paint canister on my right side. It is clear that the accused struck me. Then all three kicked me in the head,” the professor testified.

The prosecutor proposed a suspended sentence, but the judge refused, citing “the particular circumstances of the case and the nature of the culprit”.