ATHENS, Greece – A Serb man was ordered jailed pending trial and two others were released on bail Thursday after appearing before an investigating judge on the Greek island of Zakynthos in the beating death of an American tourist.
A fourth suspect who appeared before the judge was granted a brief postponement and will testify on Friday. Bail for the two who were released was set at 5,000 euros ($5,700).
The four were among nine men aged between 18 and 34 — one Greek, seven Serbs and a British citizen of Serb origin — charged in the July 7 death of 22-year-old Bakari Henderson, who was beaten by a group of men outside a bar in Zakynthos’ rowdy tourist district of Lagana.
The other five suspects, who testified on Wednesday, were all remanded in custody pending trial.
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 all 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.
The five suspects remanded in custody Wednesday were expected to be moved from police holding cells to prison by the end of the week. No trial date has been set.
IOANNA SPANOU
FANIS KARABATZAKIS
