Lawyer: Athens gunman targeted public offices over pension dispute

An 89-year-old man has been arrested in connection with two separate shooting incidents in Athens that left five people wounded, with his lawyer describing the attacks as an act of “protest and despair” over grievances with public services in Greece.

According to authorities, the suspect first opened fire with a shotgun at a branch of Greece’s EFKA, injuring an employee in the leg. He then took a taxi to a nearby court building, where he fired several additional shots, lightly wounding four female court clerks.

Following the attacks, the man fled the capital and was later arrested at a hotel in the city of Patras, approximately 200 kilometres west of Athens.

“It was an act of protest and despair,” his lawyer, Vassilis Noulezas, told Reuters, adding that his client had longstanding grievances related to pension issues.

Noulezas said the suspect had worked for 40 years as an engineer in Chicago and had previously been hospitalised at a psychiatric clinic in Athens. He had applied for a supplementary pension in Greece, but his request was rejected.

A public prosecutor on Wednesday charged the man with attempted murder and illegal possession of a firearm.

In response to the incident, Michalis Chrysochoidis acknowledged that there were security gaps at some court buildings, while maintaining that Greece remains a safe country overall.

Meanwhile, employees of EFKA staged a walkout on Wednesday to protest security conditions following the shooting, describing the incident as another expression of public frustration over understaffed government services.

The two shootings took place in central Athens on Tuesday morning, April 28.

By Tamilla Hasanova