In August last year, Theodosis Kakouris volunteered to help fight the wildfires in Attica, Greece and was accused of arson.
He was remanded in custody for 11 months until on July 11, 2022 when he was unanimously found not guilty by an Athens court.
“I’m not celebrating, I’m bitter and need time to adjust,” he told Ekathimerini.
Theodosis was born in 1978 in Melbourne, Australia and at the age of eight he and his family moved to Athens. Speaking of his upbringing in Greece, he said: “We went camping and went for walks in the forest, to the stream, we did explorations. It was the trigger for me to become a nature lover.”
In his interview with Ekathimerini, he detailed the events of August last year, beginning with August 3.
August 3, 2021
Theodosis said he was watching the Olympics on TV and the program was interrupted by an emergency alert reporting the fire in Varibobi, East Attica. He thought that he had to help in any way possible.
“The more hands, the easier the fire will be extinguished I thought,” he said.
He put on a pair of jeans, a navy blue long-sleeved shirt, a blue surgical mask, a khaki hat, took a towel and left on his motorcycle.
He describes his movements, telling how he led a horse from the Varibobi Equestrian Club to safety by wrapping his towel around its neck, and how he helped local residents save their houses until the soles of his shoes melted from the high temperature. Seeing he was barefoot, one of the residents gave him a pair of boots to wear.
“My whole body ached from the effort,” he said, adding that he rested on August 4 before returning to the affected area the next day.
In the early hours of August 6, 2021, however, volunteers blocked his way with their car and handed him over to police officers.
“I couldn’t figure out what I had done wrong,” he said.
One day earlier, a resident of the area had informed the volunteers about the suspicious movements of a stranger with a motorbike similar to his. When the witness was called to identify Theodosis, he testified that it was not the same man he had seen, nor was it the same vehicle.
No lighters, matches or any incendiary device were found on him during the arrest.
The main prosecution witness, a volunteer who testified to the police, said that from the points where Theodosis passed by him, new fires broke out.
“We had a lot of flare-ups and he would show up very often after each flare-up,” she claimed.
However, she admitted that she had not seen him set the fire.
Testifying in his defence, a resident of the fire-affected area said: “He put his heart and soul into helping put out the fire. I rule out a man who helped so much to have any involvement in causing fires.”
“With his help, we saved four of the five houses in the block,” added another resident of Varibobi who was a lawyer by profession and had taken videos and photos showing Theodosis assisting.
Theodosis’ time in prison
Despite this evidence, Theodosis was remanded in custody for arson with intent on three occasions, one at the Krioneri cemetery on August 4 and two in the Madri area of Krioneri on 6 August.
His pre-trial custody continued despite a report by the Greek Fire Department notifying the Prosecutor’s Office that the fire in Varibobi started from a high-voltage pillar, citing “faulty control and maintenance” as the cause.
Nevertheless, Theodosis was taken to the prison at Korydallos, where mainly foreign prisoners are kept.
As he explained, it was decided that it would be safer for him there, rather than sharing a cell as an “arsonist” with Greek prisoners who might have been connected to the fire-stricken area.
He says he avoided leaving his cell and went into the yard for the first time after the first 21 days of his sentence had passed. Two months into his sentence, he started working in the prison canteen.
“I tried to fill my everyday life, to get a routine so that I didn’t think about it and let it get me down. Whenever I thought about it, I felt enormous bitterness,” he said.
July 11, 2022
His attorneys Nikolaos Loukopoulos and Thrasyvoulos Kontaxis presented the report of the Fire Department and Theodosis was found unanimously not guilty by three judges.
“The chief justice spoke of a miscarriage of justice and wished me to continue helping, to be myself. I do not know if I can do that. I don’t want to be somewhere with a lot of people,” Theodosis said.
“I can talk about it but I don’t know if it helps me or if it makes me stay trapped in this situation.
“For so long in prison I sought my freedom and while I have obtained it, I still have a long way to go. I won’t go near a fire again. Only if it erupted near me, at 50 or 100 meters, would I go to help,” he concluded.
SOURCE: Ekathimerini
