The hearing in Thessalonica was informed by defence lawyer Christos Bakelas that his client was dead – but that little detail didn’t stop it from extending the long arm of the law beyond the grave.
Police records showed that the unemployed 46-year-old father of three had died on April 8, but Bakelas was not informed until the day before the hearing. He asked to have the trial deferred until he could deliver a death certificate, but the court refused his request and proceeded to convict the man in absentia.
The now-deceased offender was charged last year after activists reconnected his power supply, which had been cut off by the electricity company because of unpaid bills.
A shocked Bakelas said he was astonished by the court’s decision, and had not experienced anything like it in 25 years as a lawyer. Still, he can take some consolation in the fact that there’s not too much chance of his client’s suspended sentence ever being activated. Watt nonsense…
