Killing of Zak Kostopoulos: the Man in the Yellow Shirt

Overview

On Friday 21 September 2018, Zak Kostopoulos, a young LGBTQ activist, was brutally beaten to death, in broad daylight, on a busy pedestrian street near Omonia square, in central Athens. Dozens of passers-by paused to observe a group of men violently attacking Kostopoulos, who, for reasons still unknown, found himself trapped inside a jewellery shop that was owned by one of the attackers. When the police were called to the scene, Kostopoulos, already seriously injured, was violently apprehended, pinned him to the ground by nine police officers, and beaten again. Kostopoulos arrived at the hospital handcuffed, and dead. We aimed to establish whether Kostopoulos’s identity and activism were part of the reason he was assaulted, and whether the policemen at the scene were complicit in his death. In doing so, we made a series of strategic prompts, to challenge the official state investigation, prompting investigators to re-open the case. -FA