John Macris’ widow addresses Greek court over husband’s murder
The reality TV star wife of slain Australian gangster John Macris has revealed her reaction after hearing her late husband’s alleged killers were arrested before they could assassinate anyone else.
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The reality TV star wife of slain Australian gangster John Macris says she was relieved his alleged killers were arrested before they could assassinate anyone else, a Greek court heard.
Viktoria Karida, a former Playboy model, gave evidence in Athens in the trial of Bulgarian brothers Yuliyanov J Raychev Serafim and Milen Raychev on Thursday night Australian time.
The brothers have been accused of stalking Macris, a Sydney underworld figure, for 19 days before he was executed outside his hilltop home in Voula, an up-market suburb of Athens in October 2018.
Serafim was arrested in April 2019 when he had returned to Greece from Sofia, with police claiming he may have been planning another hit.
Ms Karida, who had two children with Macris whom she married in 2016, speaking in Greek, said: “Thank god they got arrested and couldn’t kill another one as they did with John.”
The model and fashion business owner said she identified Serafim in video footage of the incident taken from CCTV cameras outside her home.
“I am a person of detail, I am sure that he is the guy,” she said, according to a translation of her evidence.
“He runs and walks in the same way. The car they rented has been recorded by the CCTV of the house.”
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Ms Karida, who claimed that Macris was in real estate in Sydney before he left in 2013 and then in security when he moved to Greece, said her husband was worried before he was killed.
“That day my husband told his friend that Serafim and his brother were in the same cafeteria as John was,” she said.
The Bulgarians high profile defence lawyer Alexandros Lykourezos put to Ms Karida that it was not Serafim in the CCTV of the execution.
He argued that the killer had a different body shape and was shorter than his client.
Ms Karida said that she was able to identify Serafim as the shooter because he had a ponytail.
“I’m sure he’s the guy that I saw on the video of the murder,” she said.
Police found clothes similar to ones seen in the CCTV in a hotel where Serafim was staying, along with a receipt.
The brothers had used their own passports and rented a Nissan Pulsar in their own name that was allegedly used as the getaway vehicle.
Mr Lykourezos has claimed in their defence that professional killers would not be so careless as to use their own names on paperwork that could be traced back to them.
The case continues.
stephen.drill@news.co.uk
Originally published as John Macris’ widow addresses Greek court over husband’s murder