Guards admit to beating dead inmate

According to their testimony, the 42 year old Albanian Ili Kareli, who killed a prison guard on March 25, was beaten senseless with a lash, repeatedly hit with a stick on his soles, kicked in the chest and generally tortured.

A senior police officer said there are at least two correction officers who have come forth and depicted the torture with accuracy. There are even pieces of individual equipment from the officers gear, suspected of being the instruments of torture, confiscated by the police investigating the incident.

The suspected instruments, which include gloves, batons and sticks, are allegedly splattered with blood. Further forensic analysis of the blood type and DNA, will show whether they were used on the dead inmate.

Depositions and forensic evidence so far, show that the lethal strike on Kareli's body took place inside the Nigrita prison, where the inmate was sent after killing the guard in the Malandrino jail. There are no indications that he was beaten either in Malandrino, or in police custody before being transferred to Nigrita.

One correction officer in the Nigrita prison complained to the police station that he was threatened by foreigners, but was later arrested as being a member of the 8 officers accused for the murder of Kareli.

According to the initial police investigation, the torture took place in the waiting area before the prisoners get to their cells, known as the “freezer”. That's where the inmate was beaten, before he was taken to his cell equipped with observation cameras.

Meanwhile the Nigrita prison warden was also indicted as one of the responsible parties, for aiding and abetting his officers by remaining silent. In interviews given right after the inmate's death, the warden had claimed he wasn't in any way mistreated in his prison.