The doctor, who is being held at Athens Police Headquarters, had warned that he would go on hunger strike if he was remanded in custody.
The couple were ordered into pretrial detention following proceedings lasting almost 18 hours at the former Evelpidon court complex in Athens. The two defendants face upgraded charges in connection with Mazonakis’s death.
In their statements, both defendants denied the charges. Among other things, they said the plasmapheresis machines seized by the authorities were entirely legal, had been purchased with invoices and had been declared to the Athens Medical Association. They also attributed part of the responsibility for the course of events to the way the singer was transferred from the doctor’s surgery to the ambulance.
Appeal against pretrial detention
Shortly before the hunger strike was announced, the couple’s lawyer, Nikos Agapinos, said he would appeal against the pretrial detention order issued by the investigating judge with the consent of the prosecutor.
A press release issued by the law firm Nikos Agapinos and Associates stated: ‘Following the expected development regarding the procedural treatment of its clients, Elias Theodoropoulos and Ioanna Gaka, as a result of the wholly unjustified upgrading of the charge, the firm announces that it will immediately challenge the pretrial detention order before the competent judicial council, as it considers that its clients’ procedural rights have been grossly violated.’
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