Alleged accomplice in execution of Sydney gangster John Macris acquitted

The wife of Sydney gangster John Macris in Athens has reacted after the getaway driver in his cold blooded execution outside his home was sensationally acquitted.

The man accused of being the getaway driver in the execution of Sydney gangster John Macris in Athens has been sensationally acquitted on appeal.

The Athens Joint Jury Court of Appeal has revoked the 10-year prison sentence of accused Bulgarian national Milen Raychev, 38, on the grounds of reasonable doubt with the judge citing an “inexperienced jury”.

His initial conviction of 10 years in prison was overturned.

The court upheld the guilty verdict of his younger brother, Yuliyanov J Raychev Serafim, 34, who repeatedly shot at businessman Macris, 46, outside his home in the southern suburb of Voula on October 31, 2018.

Security camera footage from the scene showed the gunman pump bullets into Macris as he drove his car to the family house and fire the final, fatal, shot from a nine-barrelled pistol as Macris attempted to flee.

John Macris was gunned down in Athens.

Macris with his model widow Viktoria Karida. Picture: Supplied

Macris’s tearful model widow Viktoria Karida said the verdict left her deflated and the person ordering the hit on her husband remained at large.

“They took away a soul, my man and the father of my children is gone,

“I miss my husband so much,” she said, in a televised interview after the hearing.

Ms Karida, who has two children Achilles and Alexandra with Macris, implored: “Who will bring my husband back to me? It’s psychological warfare and we’ve been here for four-and-a- half years and I can’t calm down.

“I live with this anger, I don’t accept that my husband is not with me. How can I feel?” she said.

“I think about my husband every day, he is missing from my life. My man is missing from my life” she said on the T-live show

“I live for my children, they and my friends make me happy. I want my man back. It will never come back and I can’t accept that. I live with this burden and this pain, despite the fact that there are happy moments in my life.

“I’m both a dad and a mum. I try to raise children in the right way and to have a strong character. This is very difficult work.

“My kids still write letters and put them behind pictures of their dad, that they miss him and ask for a miracle that he will come back.”

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The prominent millionaire nightclub owner, a Greek-Australian, was peppered with bullets as he was getting out of his Smart car in Voula. Picture: Proto Thema

Serafim and Milen were accused of stalking Macris for 19 days before the hit outside the couple’s up-market home in the seaside suburb of Voula, the court previously heard.

Macris was gunned down while sitting in his car.

The brothers, accused of travelling from Haskovo, Bulgaria, to execute a death contract, were in Greece at the time of the shooting, and had hired a Nissan Pulsar using their own passports to check into a hotel, the court had heard.

The car was seen on CCTV footage crawling past Macris’ house a dozen times in the days leading up to the shooting.

They were also seen in the cafe where Macris had been dining.

Clothes mirroring those in the CCTV footage and a receipt were later found in Serafim’s hotel room.

Serafim had fled Greece the day after the murder but had returned in April 2019 where he was arrested by police on suspicion of plotting a second assassination.

His execution was linked to a Canadian arm of the notorious Outlaws motorcycle gang, of which Serafim has an inked logo emblazoned on his left arm.

Bulgarian national Milen Raychev, 38, has been sensationally acquitted on appeal. Picture: Spyros Bakalis

Macris left Sydney in 2013 and started a new life in Athens where he ran a security company.

He had links to organised crime in Sydney before he arrived in Greece.

The court on Thursday overturned the first instance decision, deciding by majority, that the 38-year-old brother should be acquitted due to doubts.

The judges, for a second time, imposed a life sentence for the murder on Serafim and an additional sentence of 18 months in prison and a fine of 1,000 euros for the offences of illegal carrying and use of weapons.

The brothers have denied the charges saying they could not be hitmen because professionals would not have used their own names to check into hotels and their own passports.

After the court decision was issued, lawyer for the victim’s family, Yiannis Marakakis, stated they will file an appeal so that the 38-year-old can be re-tried.

Yuliyanov J Raychev Serafim remains behind bars over the killing. Picture: Spyros Bakalis

“Regarding the second defendant, at the time of the murder he was also in Greece and the regular judges ruled that he should be found guilty as an accomplice.

“However, the outnumbered jurors in a Joint Jury had doubts and therefore the accused was acquitted on the basis of doubts,” he said.

“After the decision has been written down, we will competently appeal for the second defendant to be re-tried, considering that to a very large extent the jurors, due to lack of experience, were led into an improper judgment,” Mr Marakakis said.

“For Mrs. Karida and his children, the question is still who sent the killers, who are the moral perpetrators?”

Macris’s widow Ms Karida, told reporters outside court: “My husband will not be turned back by any decision. I want my husband.”

Originally published as Alleged accomplice in execution of Sydney gangster John Macris acquitted