Prosecutor demands conviction for main suspect in death of 11-year-old Marios from stray bullet at Greek school celebration

Courtroom scene

The Mixed Jury Court of Athens was packed with family, friends, and former classmates of Marios Souloukos on Thursday. The classmates wore black T‑shirts bearing his name. Prosecutor Antonios Kasapis began his summation by expressing shock that the case had taken nearly ten years to reach trial, recalling that when he was assigned the file he assumed it had already been concluded.

“I don't know what a society should expect when its children are murdered at a school celebration in peacetime.”

The fatal day

On a June afternoon in 2017, pupils and parents gathered in the courtyard of the 6th Primary School of Menidi for an end‑of‑year performance. Amid the festivities, 11‑year‑old Marios collapsed. A post‑mortem showed he had been struck in the head by a single bullet. Subsequent investigation revealed that two Roma men were celebrating nearby and firing weapons into the air. One bullet hit the boy; others struck rooftops and parts of the school building.

Prosecutor's demand

Kasapis argued that the principal defendant knew the lethal risk of shooting in a densely populated area next to a school and accepted the possibility of killing someone. He therefore asked the court to find him guilty of intentional homicide with possible intent.

“He knew very well what he was doing. He fired indiscriminately.”

The prosecutor stressed that the man's awareness of the risk was enough – it did not matter whether he knew the victim personally.

No leniency

Kasapis urged the court to grant no mitigating factors to the main defendant. He said the man had shown no remorse and that witnesses testified that similar reckless gunfire continues in the area. He called the practice a social pathology that must stop.

“The one who fires shots in the air is the one who doesn't want to see others dance. To hide his own inferiority.”

Second defendant's position

For the second defendant, who also fired shots, the prosecutor recommended acquittal. He explained that the man's shots were legally an "unfit attempt" because they could not have caused death. Moreover, the abolition of the relevant legal provision between 2019 and 2021 meant that conviction was not permissible. The second defendant had admitted firing twice but maintained he knew his shots were not lethal.

A society that fails its children

Kasapis quoted the historian Herodotus – "It is always unjust for a parent to bury their child" – and Croesus's saying that nobody is so foolish as to prefer war in peacetime, applying both to the loss of a child not in battle but at a school party. He described the incident as "an unspeakable injustice against the whole of society" and called the culture of shooting at celebrations a mark of insecurity and backwardness that reflects a broader failure of the state and community. The courtroom, he said, should not be a place for applause; the fact that a child died and a man must go to prison is proof of collective failure.