The Thessaloniki Mixed Jury Appeals Court is due to hear the case of 12 young PAOK fans on Friday, 23 October 2026, after adjournments in January and November 2025.
Nikos Kallidis, then head of the Thessaloniki Appeals Prosecutor's Office, filed the appeal in July 2023 to challenge the reclassification to homicide with eventual intent.
Seven defendants received life imprisonment and five received fixed-term sentences as simple accomplices, and all twelve remain in prison pending the appeal.
Police and judicial authorities have planned strict security measures, and Aris Thessaloniki asked the Ministry of Justice to block hooded individuals from gathering in support of the defendants.
The Thessaloniki Mixed Jury Appeals Court is due to hear the case on Friday, 23 October 2026, after two earlier postponements, in January and November 2025. The case concerns the killing of a 19-year-old in the Charilaou area of Thessaloniki on 1 February 2022. Twelve young PAOK fans are expected to sit in the dock. At first instance, seven of the defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment, plus further multi-year terms for complicity in homicide with eventual intent. The other five received fixed-term prison sentences as simple accomplices in the same act, and all twelve remain in prison.
The prosecution appeal was lodged in July 2023, a few days after the first-instance trial ended, by Nikos Kallidis, then head of the Thessaloniki Appeals Prosecutor's Office. He argued that the first-instance court wrongly reclassified the charge from homicide with direct intent to homicide with eventual intent. According to the appeal, the defendants should have been convicted of direct-intent homicide, which was the original charge. The appeal also argues that three defendants convicted as accomplices should instead be found to have acted as one moral perpetrator and two co-perpetrators. Because the appeal does not touch two of the defendants, the rule barring a worsening of a defendant's position on appeal applies in practice only to them. Appeal judges are not bound by the first-instance verdict, so the case will be examined from the beginning for most of the defendants.
The indictment covers more than the death itself. It also includes offences linked to the attack on two friends of the 19-year-old during the same bloody episode. Those charges sit alongside the homicide counts that the prosecution's appeal challenges. The appeal panel will therefore review both the core killing charge and the related counts against the defendants.
Police and judicial authorities have planned strict security measures for the hearing. In the days before it, representatives of the judicial and police authorities met at the Thessaloniki courthouse to discuss security inside and outside the courtroom, and the orderly conduct of proceedings. Aris Thessaloniki issued a statement asking the Ministry of Justice and the police leadership to take strict protective measures. The club wants to block hooded individuals who gather with banners and slogans in support of the defendants. The statement said:
“Justice must safeguard the judicial process and prevent sad phenomena.”
The statement added that impunity and a lack of empathy must not be allowed to prevail.
The case runs from the killing on 1 February 2022 through the prosecution appeal in July 2023 and the two adjournments in January and November 2025. The hearing on 23 October 2026 comes after that sequence.
The first-instance sentences split the twelve defendants into two groups, with seven receiving life imprisonment and five receiving fixed terms.
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The Thessaloniki Mixed Jury Appeals Court opens the case on Friday, 23 October 2026, after prosecutors challenged the first-instance verdict. All twelve defendants remain in prison while the appeal is heard.
AI text based on reports by Ειδήσεις, in.gr, ΣΚΑΪ and other publishers. Published .