Greek police officers escort two of the seven suspects, centre, allegedly involved in the fatal beating of Texan tourist Bakari Henderson as they disembark a police bus at a court house in Patras city, western Greece, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020. A Greek court has postponed the retrial of seven suspects on murder charges over the 2017 fatal beating of a Texan tourist on an island resort. (AP Photo/Giannis Androutsopoulos)
ATHENS (AP) — A Greek court on Monday indefinitely postponed the retrial of seven suspects on murder charges over the 2017 fatal beating of a Texan tourist on an island resort.
The postponement was granted following a request by some of the defendants’ lawyers, who were trying separate cases on the same day.
Monday’s postponement was the second, after the court in the western town of Patras deferred the case last week to give the newly hired lawyer representing the dead man’s family time to familiarize himself with the case.
Bakari Henderson, a 22-year-old from Austin, died in July 2017 after being beaten in the street following an argument in a bar in the Laganas resort area of Zakynthos island in western Greece.
Six of the suspects — five Serbian nationals and a British man of Serbian origin — were initially convicted by a first instance court last year and sentenced to between five and 15 years in prison, but four have since been released. The seventh defendant, a Greek barman, was acquitted. A public prosecutor had ordered the retrial of all seven, deeming the sentences too lenient.
The Patras court didn’t immediately set a new trial date.
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