(Xinhua — A 14-year-old boy from a village near Thessaloniki in northern Greece was charged on Monday with the murder of his friend and classmate who had been found dead in their neighbourhood on Sunday, local police said.
The case has shocked Greek society, local media stressed. The boy who has confessed to fatally stabbing with a kitchen knife the victim on Saturday night, claims that he had been a victim of bullying over the past two years by his friend and other schoolmates.
The alleged perpetrator was apprehended and brought before a prosecutor on Monday, a few hours after the discovery of evidence linking him to the killing, Greek national news agency AMNA reported.
His fingerprints were found on the knife that was thrown away a few meters from the side of the road where the dead body of the victim was found, according to police sources.
The 14-year-old boy admitted to the crime attributing the fatal attack to his anger over the bullying he claimed he suffered from a group of his classmates, the same sources said.
The alleged attacker told police investigators that he was systematically ridiculed over the poor finances of his family.
According to police sources he said that the victim had teased him on Saturday evening while they were out with other friends over his father’s old tractor.
As they returned home, he asked the victim to wait for a few minutes to go home and return to sort things out. Instead he took a knife from his house’s kitchen and attacked his schoolmate.
According to police sources it appears that the other 14-year-old boy tried to defend himself. His body was found by the father of the alleged assailant and policemen on Sunday.
The suspected perpetrator is detained at police premises at Thessaloniki. As a minor under 15 years old according to Greece’s legal framework he will not necessarily be remanded in pre-trial custody.
His lawyer told local media that the teenager was in a state of shock; he has regretted the fatal attack and was receiving help from specialized psychologists, as well as his family and the victim’s family.
As the victim was buried on Monday afternoon, local police chief Nikos Zissimopoulos commented in local media that both families were living a tragedy.
Loukas Efstathiades, the village’s president who is also a cousin of the victim’s mother, told news portal in.gr that the schoolmaster does not confirm any bullying incidents.
According to Efstathiades the attacker had the fame of a quick tempered teenager with possible psychological issues who was often involved in brawls.
According to a recent UNICEF survey, one out of two 15-year olds in Greece said they had been bullied at school this year.
In an EU study carried out in the framework of an EU program “European campaign against bullying”, Greece ranked fourth behind Lithuania, Estonia and Bulgaria in school bullying last year.
According to the survey, 31 percent of students in secondary schools in Greece said that they have been victims of bullying.
