Two men were arrested in Athens on Friday in relation to the 2021 murder of Greek journalist Giorgos Karaivaz.
The prominent journalist was murdered outside of his home in the Athenian suburb of Alimos, shot several times by two men on a motorcycle as he was exiting his car.
The killing had shocked Greece and the world, and criticism for the lack of arrests had rekindled recently.
Arrests allegedly solve Karaivaz and one more murder case
The arrests in relation to Karaivaz’s murder were announced by Citizen Protection Minister Takis Theodorikakos, who posted the news on his social media on Friday evening, adding that investigations continue.
“From the first moment, authorities had promised the case would be solved, no matter how long it would take,” Theodorikakos noted.
Greek police issued a separate brief announcement, were they revealed that two Greek nationals aged 40 and 48 were arrested “accused of the homicide of journalist Giorgos Karaivaz”.
According to Greek public broadcaster ERT, the arrested are brothers, and believed to be implicated in yet another murder case.
They are expected to appear in front of the prosecutor on Saturday morning.
Αnother two individuals are wanted in relation to Karaivaz’s murder, the case file reportedly reveals.
Greek journalist Karaivaz murdered in front of his house
Karaivaz was murdered on April 9, 2021, around 2:30 PM, as he returned home from his work as a crime reporter on Star TV channel.
An estimated 17 to 20 shell casings were found at the scene, and reports indicated that the killers used a silencer, as neighbors didn’t hear any gunshots.
He was married and had a child.
According to reports broadcast by Star TV channel in the weeks following his murder, police authorities had to analyze two lists of suspects, 30 statements and 150 videos.
Concerns over journalists’ safety in Greece
In early August 2021, the group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) had asked the Greek government to speed up the investigation on the Karaivaz murder case, for the sake of the safety of all Greek journalists.
The Media Freedom Rapid Response group (MFRR) said later that year that they planned an online fact-finding mission to Greece in the first half of December to assess increasing concerns about media freedom and the safety of journalists in the country.
Karaivaz has not been the the only journalist to have been murdered in Greece; on July 19, 2010, another prominent Greek journalist, Socrates Giolias, died after he was shot by unknown perpetrators outside his house, in front of his pregnant wife.
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