Symeou - Extradited The European Arrest Warrant and My Fight for Justice from a Greek Prison Cell

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

Isaac Asimov

I was sitting in a courtroom again, only this time it was on British soil. After spending two years of my life trapped in Greece and a further two years picking up the pieces, it was exhausting to be sucked back into the case again. My heart would have been palpitating at an extremely fast rate, but I was pumped up with prescription beta-blockers a fantastic chemical invention.

Six years earlier, in 2007, I had gone on a two-week summer holiday to Laganas in Zante the Greek island also known as Zakynthos. I was with seven of my best friends the boys and the holiday was the usual mixture of sun, sea and nightlife. It was quite good fun, but nothing remarkable happened. We were just a group of normal eighteen-year-olds, and we were there to have a great time after completing our A levels. Thinking about it with hindsight, we were young and it was all very innocent.

While we were holidaying in Zante, a Welshman called Jonathan Hiles had tragically passed away after allegedly being attacked in a nightclub called Rescue. I didnt know Jonathan and had never met him. An unknown male was said to have been urinating on a raised stage where Jonathan and his friends were dancing. Some time later, after an exchange of a few words, a punch was thrown. Jonathan fell from the stage head-first and died two days later in a Greek hospital from a brain haemorrhage it was the day before his nineteenth birthday. I cant even begin to imagine how devastating it must have been for his family.

The coroner for Cardiff, where Jonathan lived, was obliged to conduct an inquest into his death (even though six years had gone by and he had passed away abroad). Id been summoned to appear as a witness, but I knew nothing of what had happened to Jonathan wed never crossed paths. During my time in Zante there had been no arguments, no fights I didnt see any violence at all. I wasnt in the same building as Jonathan when he was struck. A full criminal trial had already taken place in Greece two years earlier and Id been found innocent of his murder (fatal bodily harm according to Greek law). It unfolded that I was merely a random person from a photograph, which was taken on a different night from the attack.

It was Day 2 of the inquest and I sat on the second row of the public benches. My parents were sitting to my right, but we didnt feel the need to speak. The three of us were far too involved in our own thoughts. The entire left wall of the courtroom was filled with journalists and reporters, sitting wide-eyed and ready to jot down as much information as possible.

Chris Kyriacou and Charlie Klitou had been summoned as witnesses too they were schoolfriends of mine who were in Zante at the same time as my group. In the periphery of my vision I caught sight of them entering the courtroom, but I didnt want to make eye contact. I hadnt spoken to either of them since early 2009, the year that I was extradited to Greece. The victims dad sat to the right of the bench in front of us, the same row as the barrister wed appointed. The room began to fill with the victims family and friends. It was silent but filled with tension; not even a whisper went unheard before the coroner entered. Im sure that she was eager to discover how I had become the key suspect in the first place.

Chris was called to the witness box. He was still as skinny as ever, but hed definitely grown since the last time Id seen him. When he began to speak I noticed that his voice was deeper than Id remembered. It was always slightly high-pitched and a bit yappy, but what I was hearing now was the voice of a man. It was a harsh reminder of how many years had passed since Id been wrongfully accused of this crime.

He explained to the coroner that he and Charlie Klitou were on a different holiday package from my group. The two of them had decided to book the holiday later than us, and the only available dates for the same package fell four days after we would arrive, leaving four days after we would return to London. Overall, the two of them overlapped with us in Zante for ten days.

He continued his testimony by explaining that our group of friends had gone to a series of different bars and nightclubs on the night when Jonathan was allegedly attacked. According to witnesses, the event had taken place between 1 a.m. and 1.30 a.m. on 20 July 2007. At that time, we were in another bar, which was over 200 metres from the Rescue nightclub, where we stayed until around 4 a.m.

For the avoidance of doubt, did you at any stage that night, the 19th/20th, see Mr Symeou hit another person? asked the coroner.

No! And Ive never seen him hit another person in my life, Chris exclaimed.

How long have you known him for?

Since Year Seven, so since we were probably about twelve years old.

Chris told the coroner that he and Charlie had stayed in Zante for four days after my group had left the island. On the second of those days, when I was back in London, Zante police officers had unexpectedly turned up at the hotel. The police were showing photographs taken by a professional photographer in the Rescue nightclub from a special event night (the night before the incident) and one of the photographs happened to be of my face on a crowded dance floor. Chris continued to explain that the hotel manager had recognised me from the photograph as a previous guest. Knowing that we were friends, the manager had sent one of the holiday reps to Chris and Charlies hotel room to inform them that the police wanted to see them for questioning. The officers seized both his and Charlies passports, took them to the police station and then sat them in separate rooms.

They asked me where my family was from; I said theyre Greek Cypriot. Instantly one of them turned to me and said, Youre lucky your family are from Cyprus, or this would be a lot worse.