Six of the nine suspects in the beating death of American tourist Bakari Henderson in Zakynthos ordered jailed pending trial and two others were released on bail Thursday.
Bail for the two who were released was set at 5,000 euros.
The ninth suspect who appeared before the judge was granted a brief postponement and will testify on Friday.
The suspects aged between 18 and 34 — one Greek, seven Serbs and a British citizen of Serb origin — were charged in the July 7 death of the 22-year-old, who was beaten by a group of men outside a bar in Zakynthos’ tourist district of Lagana.
Henderson, of Austin, Texas, had recently graduated from the University of Arizona and was in Greece working on a photo shoot to launch a clothing line, his family says.
Greek police spokesman Theodoros Chronopoulos said the exact cause of the fight was unclear, but that it started shortly after Henderson took a selfie with one of the bar’s waitresses.
One of the suspects apparently spoke with the waitress and possibly with Henderson, and the American then appears to have either broken or placed a bottle of beer on the Serbs’ table, Chronopoulos said. He added that details were still unclear, as the testimony had not been completed.
A fight broke out and Henderson was chased down the street. Video footage from a security camera that aired on Greek television shows Henderson running down the sidewalk and being pursued. One man tackled him, throwing him onto a parked car before others joined in the beating.
No trial date has been set.
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