Giorgos Karaivaz: The two arrested face investigator - What they will allege

Police are said to have settled on the fact that at least four people are involved in the murder while the mastermind is in prison, with a new round of arrests being just a matter of time.

Authorities are on the trail of two more people, who according to the case file are believed to have been in the area, but no arrest warrants have been issued against them. According to police sources, other people are expected to be called to testify.

The monitoring of Giorgos Karaivaz by Greek intelligence

Speaking to MEGA channel, the lawyer of the mother and sister of the unfortunate journalist, Roi Pavleas, underscored that Giorgos Karaivaz was under surveillance by Greek intelligence agency -EYP between 2016 and 2017.

"We found that in the other case file - that of the Greek Mafia - there is a confidential document from EYP to the prosecutor Eleni Raikou, which says that it is no longer possible to transcribe the conversations and they request that the surveillance continue only for three of those who were being monitored until then" noted the lawyer, stressing that all three people whose monitoring continued were assassinated.

According to Ms. Pavlea, it was a former police officer, a criminal and George Karaivaz.

"The illegal monitoring continued and the point is that this permission was not given after all. The surveillance of Karaivaz and the other two was illegal, because it did not have the approval of the two prosecutors. We don't know why they were following Giorgos Karaivaz," he added.

What will the arrested allege?

The two brothers aged 40 and 48 who have been arrested are facing the charge of first degree murder and will be brought today to testify before the 30th Regular Investigator following the arrest warrant that brings them before the judicial authorities as perpetrators of the mafia hit.

According to information, they will claim that they had no communication with the persons alleged to have ordered the hit, while regarding their presence in the specific area, they will claim that on those days they were distributing advertising brochures for the services of an apartment building cleaning company using the company van.

To buttress this position they will say that they keep a diary with the specific tasks while there are also messages with some employees of the company about the distribution of the leaflets. Regarding the post on Facebook shortly after the murder of Giorgos Karaivaz where they wrote "Good beginning" they are expected to say that it had nothing to do with the murder, but it was about a new truck that the company had acquired. On her part, the mother of the 40-year-old man who was arrested for the murder of Karaivaz, claimed that it was a misunderstanding and that her family had nothing to do with it.

"They have a clean criminal record"

According to the lawyer of the 40-year-old and his 48-year-old brother, Athanasia Stavris, the two defendants dispute the evidence cited by authorities. In her statement to a television station, the advocate described as "disconnected" what is recorded in the case file against her clients, stating that the two brothers are before Justice through "logical leaps". As Ms. Stavri mentioned:

"The principals deny the accusation in every way. Let us say and clarify about the past of the two brothers that they do not have a criminal past in the sense of convictions. They have a clean criminal record."

According to the evidence in the case file, which appears to describe the actions of other persons involved in the murder, the two defendants seem to have used ghost cell phones a few days before the murder, having put theirs on hold. These so-called "Pakistani phones" were never activated again after the assassination. At the same time, they are said to have taken measures to escape from the spot where the journalist was "taken out" but also to have studied the spot particularly carefully.

The procedure is expected, according to state news agency AMNA, to last quite a while as the defendants are expected to be asked to answer dozens of questions from the judicial officer after the allegations they will present.

The cafes that have been targeted by the authorities

At the same time, the police have put under the microscope two cafes where rendezvous of those involved took place after the Karaivaz murder.

These cafes are located in the areas of Zografou and Elefsina, while it is possible that one of the two arrested has a share in one establishment.

According to information, it seems that in both cafes the arrested had several contacts with people who all indicate that they will be of concern to police in the near future, with the developments in the Karaivaz case expected to be rapid.