In an open letter, the family of 25-year-old Nikolas Moustakas, who was killed during a mugging on 15 August on Philopappos Hill, expresses its thanks to Greek Police, not only for finding and arresting the three male culprits who attacked Moustakas, but also for the manner in which Greek Police officials, “from the first moment approached us, supported us, and with their efforts vindicated us”.

The text of the letter is as follows:
Athens, 31 August, 2018
To: Greek Police

Heartbroken by the unjust and tragic loss of our son Nikolas, we would like to publicly express our thanks and our deep gratitude towards all the officials of Greek Police, which has been decimated by the bailout memorandums, and more specifically to the officers of Attica Security Policy, and mainly the Homicide Bureau, its director Photios Douitsis and deputy director Nikos Hasiotis, and all the officers and staff.

Our gratitude does not pertain only to the coordinated and fruitful efforts under adverse conditions to immediately find and arrest the culprits of the brutal murder of our son, Nikolas.

It mainly concerns the manner in which from the first moment they approached us, supported us, and through their efforts vindicated us.

With honour,

The Family of Nikolas Moustakas

The 25-year-old victim was studying in Glasgow, Scotland and was in Greece on vacation. At the time of the attack, he was accompanied by a lady friend from Portugal, who was key in helping police identify the culprits

The culprits, two Pakistani nationals – on of them claimed he is 17 years old and the other 26 – and one 28-year-old Iraqi national, confessed to the mugging, but claimed that the victim was killed when he fell off a cliff while retreating during the attack with a broken bottle. The two Pakistanis were arrested in Eidomeni, near the Greek-FYROM border, as they were attempting to leave the country.
The three men have been charged with intentional homicide and have been jailed pending trial.

Police said that the three culprits were implicated in 10 previous robberies.