Babis Anagnostopoulos, the wife killer, was assaulted in prison by a Georgian inmate who was enraged because his friend had been wrongfully imprisoned in connection with the murder, according to MailOnline.
Babis, 34, was sentenced to life in prison last month for suffocating his wife Caroline Crouch, 20, in front of their 11-month-old daughter Lydia at their luxury home in a suburb of Athens on May 11, 2021.
After strangling their pet dog to make it look like a burglary, he sobbed crocodile tears in front of cops and Caroline’s bewildered family before being apprehended by cops who saw through his fabricated story.
He was imprisoned for a year at Athens’ Korydallos jail, when he was attacked by a fellow inmate but escaped unharmed.
‘He was attacked by a Georgian man who was in the same prison,’ his lawyer Alexandros Papaioannidis said. It had something to do with the fact that the Greek police had initially arrested a Georgian man for the crime. ‘This man stated that he intended to murder my client, but the guards were able to stop him.’ It happened on the wing where he was being held, and he has also been the target of previous attacks. He’s terrified, but he’s alright right now.’
A Georgian man was arrested by Greek police three days after the murder, on May 14, 2021, at the country’s border with Bulgaria, in connection with the murder.
After he was reported to match a photofit of one of the burglars that Babis handed detectives, Giorgi Kharddzeishvili, 36, was strapped to a chair and abused for four days by murder squad officers.
He was paraded in front of the court in Athens after his arrest by triumphant police who said he was the key suspect, however he was eventually released after being charged with an unrelated robbery.
‘I was held up for four days and assaulted while they told me to confess to this girl’s murder,’ Khardzeishvili told Georgian media.
‘I had no idea what was going on; I’d never heard of this chick before.’ They would alternate pounding me so hard that my head would spin and I would suffer a concussion.
‘When one of us got fatigued, the other began to pummel me.’ ‘Tell us how you killed her, how you got into the house, how you got out of there,’ they would say.
Following Babis’ conviction, three policemen from the Athens homicide unit were demoted as a result of Khardzeishvili’s treatment.
‘This was all in retaliation for what happened to the Georgian man caught and tortured by the police in connection with Caroline’s death,’ a source stated of the attacks on Babis at Korydallos.
The man who attacked Babis was a Georgian who was aware of what had occurred to his fellow countryman and threatened to murder him.’
Babis had been relocated from Korydallos to a jail in Malandrino, 250 kilometres away, according to Mr Papaioannidis.
‘He was moved on Monday, and it’s a lot further away from Athens, making it more difficult for his family to visit him,’ he said. He will have a terrible time seeing his daughter — in fact, he will have very little chance.
‘To be honest, he and I both wanted him to stay in Korydallos because we believe it is the safest location for him, despite what occurred.’
‘Malandrinio has a number of detainees who have been convicted of heinous crimes; Korydallos was the lesser of two evils.
‘He has applied to teach inmates and will be enrolled in a legal course while he is there.’ We’re preparing our appeal, which we hope to hear in the coming months.’