Key witness testifies, confirms murder contract against Vaxevanis: “Fourthiotis wanted to kill him”

Reporting by documentonews.gr, translated by Tony Rigopoulos

A key witness has confirmed in an official testimony to the Greek police that trash-TV presenter Menios Fourthiotis had issued a murder contract against the publisher of Documento newspaper, journalist Kostas Vaxevanis. The testimony fully confirms the information that had reached Vaxevanis: That is, Menios Fourthiotis was in search of people in the underworld to execute a contract of execution against Vaxevanis and another person, but also to shoot his own house, so that he will also be considered a victim and hence, the authorities would place him again under police protection, since it had been removed a few days earlier.

The witness allegedly testified at the Department of Extortion Prosecution of the Hellenic Police in October 2021. According to his testimony, “in Piraeus, at the beginning of March 2021, 10 to 15 days before the shootings at the house of Menios Fourthiotis”, he randomly met with a person who works as a taxi driver.

According to the witness, that person told him that he had met with Fourthiotis outside his house in Dionysos and “(Fourthiotis) suggested to him to go and shoot his house for a fee, so he could get back his police protection”. A few days earlier the authorities had in fact removed the police protection from the presenter following heated reactions that had erupted after documentonews.gr published that he had been granted heavy protection.

The “taxi driver” also told the witness that “Fourthiotis proposed to get rid of Vaxevanis and one more journalist who has an Albanian name”. The witness testified that he advised the “taxi driver” not to do anything illegal because he could get in trouble. The “taxi driver” allegedly agreed.

Vaxevanis’s meeting with the witness in Triantis’s presence

Two days after that conversation had taken place, the witness arranged a meeting with Documento journalist Vangelis Triantis. As he mentioned, he didn’t know the journalist personally but through social media.

“..I arranged the meeting as I knew that at that time Vaxevanis’s newspaper was constantly writing articles about Fourthiotis’s actions …” the witness testified.

According to the testimony, he then visited the headquarters of Documento and told Vaxevanis and Triantis that Fourthiotis was looking for people in the underworld to do two things: Shoot his house and execute a contract against Vaxevanis.
” Fourthiotis will stage a shooting at his house to regain his police protection and then he will get rid of Vaxevanis and another journalist with a foreign name,” the witness testified to the Police.

In the following days, Triantis, informed the head of the Prosecutor’s Office about what had come to his knowledge during an informal discussion. Due to the fact that it was an informal discussion in the context of general news and not a formal complaint, the information could not be of legal use.

“He will have someone to kill Vaxevanis”

A few days later, shootings took place outside Fourthiotis’s house. The witness testified that he met again with Vaxevanis in the presence of Triantis.

“After a few days, when the Kalashnikov shots were fired at Fourthiotis’s house, I met Triantis and Vaxevanis at Documento’s offices after their invitation. They told me that they thought that after the shots were fired at Fourthiotis’s house, Fourthiotis will hurt Vaxevanis as well. They asked me where had I heard this rumor and I said that I was informed by a man in Piraeus whom I had only met once before in a shop, and whose name I do not remember. After that, our meeting ended. In the following days, I learned that the newspaper Documento published an article about Fourthiotis’s death contract against Vaxevanis … “.

When asked about what he understood from the “taxi driver” and the contract against Vaxevanis, the witness is very clear in his testimony.

“..I understood that (the taxi driver) meant that Fourthiotis would put a person to kill Vaxevanis and the other journalist, so I arranged to see Triantis.”

“I am forced to inform you because you are my only protection”

Indeed, on the afternoon of April 23rd, 2021, Kostas Vaxevanis published a story regarding what the key witness had confessed to him, referring to the same person who then testified by name to the Department of Prosecution of Extortionists of the Hellenic Police. The witness had told Vaxevanis in the presence of Triantis that the person who had confided Fourthiotis’s plans to him, known by the pseudonym “Tarifas (=Greek slang for taxi driver)”, had been imprisoned in the past, and Fourthiotis approached him and offered him money.

Following the publication of the case by Vaxevanis, very serious reactions took place, leading to a prosecutor’s order to investigate the very serious allegations. Fourthiotis was arrested and put in custody (he was released a few weeks ago). Two other people who allegedly carried out the attack at the presenter’s house, were also arrested and held.

It should be noted that in addition to the “key” witness, a number of individuals who allegedly had been involved in the attempt to find someone to carry out Fourthiotis’s contract, have also testified to the  Department of Extortion Prosecution. It is striking that these individuals fully confirm Fourthiotis’ attempt to find people to attack his house for a fee. On the other hand, in their attempt not to incriminate themselves they talk about… two more tasks he would assign to them later, but they do not clarify what those “tasks” were about.