{"id":581,"date":"2020-12-20T19:13:15","date_gmt":"2020-12-20T16:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zackieohjustice.watch\/?p=581"},"modified":"2020-12-20T19:14:34","modified_gmt":"2020-12-20T16:14:34","slug":"zaks-an-icon-the-long-fight-for-justice-over-death-of-greek-lgbt-activist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zackieohjustice.watch\/en\/press\/zaks-an-icon-the-long-fight-for-justice-over-death-of-greek-lgbt-activist\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Zak’s an icon’: the long fight for justice over death of Greek LGBT activist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Guardian, 20 Dec. 2020<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zak Kostopoulos\u2019s family say murder charges must be brought in a case that has exposed deep homophobia<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Protesters hold a banner reading \u2018Don\u2019t close your eyes\u2019 and bearing the image of Zak Kostopoulos and his alter ego Zackie Oh outside an Athens court. Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Days after his death in the heart of Athens, the image of Zak Kostopoulos began to appear across the city centre, on buildings and nondescript office blocks, the marble steps of neoclassical mansions, walls and columns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Gladstonos street there were also words, some sprayed, some stencilled, some handwritten, but all amounting to the same thing: a memorial to a man who dared to be different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was here that the LGBTQ+ activist, drag artist and columnist was killed in broad daylight on 21 September 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Informally renamed Zackie Oh after Kostopoulos\u2019s alter ego, the pedestrian sidestreet is now a symbol of the fight for justice in a case that has not only exposed profound homophobia in Greece but a culture of \u201cabuse and impunity\u201d<\/a> in its police force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kostopoulos, a vocal campaigner for HIV-positive people like himself, was 33 years old when he was killed in a jewellery shop on Gladstonos. How he got trapped in the store remains unknown. What is clear from video clips that later emerged of his death is the violence that he endured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a lynching. There\u2019s no other way to describe it,\u201d said Philippos Karagiorgis, who is seen in the footage, arms outstretched, attempting to stop the attack. \u201cHe was \u2026 on all fours like a baby, desperately trying to crawl through the shattered glass of the shop\u2019s window. Every time he tried to get up, these two men would kick him in the head, again and again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karagiorgis, who will testify when the case is brought to trial, witnessed the assault after his motorbike ran out of fuel and puttered to a standstill nearby. \u201cThere was a lot of commotion, a lot of screaming,\u201d said the salesman, speaking about the incident for the first time. \u201cWhat I\u2019ll never forget was the apathy of the crowd, people sitting there in the cafes, watching as if it was a movie, when it was the most aggressive, inhuman thing I\u2019ve ever seen. My soul darkened that day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Zak Kostopoulos. Photograph: Grigoris Morikis\/Amnesty.org<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Initially, Kostopoulos was portrayed as a drug addict and thief, caught in the act by a shopkeeper who had momentarily stepped away. Media reported police being called to arrest a \u201cknife-wielding robber\u201d. The shop proprietor and a fellow storeowner \u2013 later revealed to be a far-right sympathiser \u2013 were described as intervening to stop him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But video footage taken by onlookers has yielded a different version of events. It shows Kostopoulos being hit and kicked as he tries to extricate himself from the premises. Despite putting up no resistance, he is then violently apprehended by police. By the time an ambulance reaches the nearest hospital, he is pronounced dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe is clearly only half alive but they cuff him from behind, making any attempt at resuscitation impossible,\u201d said Anny Paparousou, one of two criminal lawyers representing the activist\u2019s family. \u201cIt\u2019s hard not to conclude that this was a hate crime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amnesty International has called Kostopoulos\u2019 death \u201cmurder\u201d and launched a global campaign<\/a>. Six people, including the two shop owners and four policemen, stand accused of inflicting fatal bodily harm, a charge all deny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Controversy and setbacks have marred the quest for justice. From the outset, when it was reported that authorities failed to seal the crime scene \u2013 allowing it to be cleaned \u2013 rights campaigners have spoken of a cover-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of Kostopoulos\u2019s fingerprints were found on a knife \u2013 dispelling allegations he was intent on robbing the store. Instead, supporters say he appears to have run into the shop for refuge after an altercation outside. Toxicological reports confirmed Kostopoulos had no traces of drugs or other substances in his body, and a coroner found he had died of multiple injuries, sustained mostly to his head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I visited the scene the next day, I asked waiters in the cafes opposite what had happened and they all said: \u2018He slashed his throat,\u2019\u201d Kostopoulos\u2019s younger brother, Nikos, told the Guardian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBased on the autopsy, that is simply not true, and I keep asking: \u2018Why did they have to lie?\u2019 Zacharias was a victim of prejudice. He was very open, very expressive. He\u2019d walk down the street and often people would hurl abuse at him. He believed in freedom. From a young age he told our parents: \u2018This is who I am.\u2019 It was new to them, but they were very supportive. My mother calls him \u2018my hero\u2019<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The family hired Forensic Architecture<\/a>, the UK-based agency that analyses human rights violations, to conduct its own inquiry. Its assessment was damning: Greek police had failed to launch a proper investigation, overlooking vital video footage and CCTV cameras that captured the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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People paste posters reading \u2018We won\u2019t be silent\u2019 on the shutters of the shop where Zak Kostopoulos was killed. Photograph: Aris Messinis\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now the family wants justice so no one has to endure the same thing, said Nikos Kostopoulos, referring to a judge\u2019s decision to indefinitely postpone what had been an eagerly awaited trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI honestly believe that all the things he was against \u2013 patriarchy, stigmatisation, stereotypes \u2013 killed my brother in the end,\u201d he sighed. \u201cZacharias was perceived as less. What really happened would\u2019ve been buried if people hadn\u2019t come forward with the videos.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The family\u2019s lawyers are pressing for murder charges to be brought. They also want all nine police officers involved in Kostopoulos\u2019s arrest \u2013 not four \u2013 to be charged with homicide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFatal bodily harm is inadequate if the trial is to send the right message,\u201d said Paparousou.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A ray of light has appeared. A prosecutor recently instructed investigators to expand the inquiry into the death. \u201cThat raises the prospect of more people being included in the criminal complaint,\u201d the lawyer added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trial was put on hold in November by a court citing public health risks, but not before the sitting judge, Giorgos Kassimis, had described the hearing as \u201chistoric.\u201d A new trial date is expected in the coming months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Greece\u2019s LGBTQ+ community, Kostopoulos and his alter ego, Zackie Oh, represent the long overdue struggle for equality and respect<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Increasingly, the brutal manner of his death has drawn parallels with the fatal stabbing of the anti-fascist rapper, Pavlos Fyssas, whose murder at the hands of a Golden Dawn member lead to the unravelling of the neo-Nazi party<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same ideology that killed both of them,\u201d said Annie Papazoglou, 28, of Colour Youth, a leading Athens LGBTQ+ organisation. \u201cHomophobic assaults are still common here. There\u2019s been a huge recruitment of police officers in central Athens and growing incidents of police violence and abuse of power. It\u2019s crucial Zak\u2019s murderers are convicted \u2026 to show nothing like this will ever be tolerated again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Street artists are also poised to paint the streets. \u201cZak\u2019s an icon,\u201d said one who goes by the name Mitsos Kiklamanos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, street artists with the urban graffiti group Political Stencil rented a crane and painted through the night so that by daybreak, the entire wall of a building in the downtown neighbourhood of Exarcheia bore the image of Kostopoulos and Zackie Oh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is about difference and the lack of tolerance for it in this society,\u201d said Kiklamanos, 48, an arts teacher by profession. \u201cZak was murdered for being who he was. And that\u2019s why his image is going to be on walls and columns, every surface we can put it on, for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Guardian, 20 Dec. 2020 Zak Kostopoulos\u2019s family say murder charges must be brought in a case that has exposed deep homophobia Days after his death in the heart of Athens, the image of Zak Kostopoulos began to appear across the city centre, on buildings and nondescript office blocks, the marble steps of neoclassical mansions, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":583,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5256],"tags":[6603],"class_list":["post-581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press","tag-the-guardian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zackieohjustice.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zackieohjustice.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zackieohjustice.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zackieohjustice.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zackieohjustice.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zackieohjustice.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":588,"href":"https:\/\/zackieohjustice.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions\/588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zackieohjustice.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zackieohjustice.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zackieohjustice.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zackieohjustice.watch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}