Killer of 32-year-old tax officer handed two life sentences

An Athens court handed down two life sentences to a 58-year-old man for the murder of a 32-year-old tax officer last year.

A prosecutor had earlier proposed a guilty verdict, without mitigating circumstances.

Prosecutor Mina Sotiropoulou gave no credence to the claim by Emmanouil Soropidis that he acted on orders to injure Theodora Zeberi by an Athens lawyer and another man called "Haris."

The killing occurred on October 18 as Zeberi was sitting beside the grave of a loved one in Athens's Second Cemetery in the western suburb of Rizoupoli.

After he stabbed her multiple times, Soropidis stole her phone from her handbag and delivered it to a store - as he had been instructed to. He said the storeowner paid him 20 euros with which he bought heroin. He claimed he did not deal the fatal stab to her heart and only intended to injure her.