Greek prosecution lawyer says footballer Harry Maguire needs to apologise to the police
The Greek prosecutor who secured a guilty verdict against Manchester United star Harry Maguire says the footballer’s version of events are "ridiculous" and the player needs to apologise to the police for what happened.
The England defender was found guilty of bribery, aggravated assault and resisting arrest. However, Maguire, who denies all charges, has now been granted a retrial following his appeal against the verdict.
In an interview with the BBC, Maguire said he felt no need to apologise as, at the time, he thought he was being kidnapped and feared for his life after being hit on the legs by plain-clothed officers.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain, Dr Ioannis Paradissis told Sean Fletcher and Ranvir Singh why he didn't agree with Maguire's claims that he was fearing for his life because he was scared he was going to be kidnapped.
"I doubt he feared for his life....The police heard some kind of commotion, some kind of argument going on and they went there to break the argument, they just went there to help," Dr Paradissis said.
"The policemen immediately said we’re from the police and they showed them their professional IDs so I doubt there could have been any misunderstanding," he added in response to the question about the misunderstanding as the police officers were undercover.
Responding to Ranvir's question about why the origin of Maguire's fears - that his sister had been injected with an unknown substance - hadn't been investigated, Dr Paradissis said: "It’s a very serious accusation. The Greek justice system should look into that. However, in Greece, if the victim does not make a formal complaint, there can be no examination of what happened. From what I understand, Daisy was taken to the police station, but in front of a policeman she didn’t say any of that."
"From a legal perspective, it’s a very simple case. It’s just tourists travelling to Greece and misbehaving," he added.
Believing that Maguire should have apologised to the police, Dr Paradissis said: "In the Greek legal system, when you accept what you’ve done and when you apologise for what you have done, the sentencing is much different. So this would have changed a lot."
During the interview, Dr Paradissis explained how the appeal process could take up to two years when the initial trial took far less time.
He said: "The initial trial lasted over six hours which is an enormous amount of time for this kind of trial because as I said, it was a simple kind of trial. It was just tourists having had a drink and misbehaving on vacation, attacking police and then trying to use their wealth to get out of what they’ve done. It was a simple case and it lasted six hours. There were eyewitnesses so this is why it happened so quickly. All the evidence is there."
"They had scars and bruises were shown in trial and what is unacceptable for a policeman just doing his job to try and help break some kind of fight, going home after his shift with scars and bruises. This is totally unacceptable that Harry Maguire hasn’t said any kind of words about that," he said of the policemen involved.
Maguire insists that he didn't know they were the police. He thought he was getting kidnapped.