Free Extradited by Andrew Symeou Page B

officer inputted.
    ‘Yes, I saw that too,’ the officer next to me said. ‘You know, it won’t be eighteen months in jail. I think maximum three months and you will come back home,’ he said casually.
    Three months! I thought. I couldn’t bear thinking about what could happen in three whole months.
    ‘We’ll see,’ I responded while taking a big gulp from the bottle of water that I’d bought before boarding. There was an awkward pause for a few moments.
    ‘You know, not all Greek police are like them,’ the officer next to me said.
    I was quite shocked by the comment.
    ‘Of course not. They ruin it for all of you, now you all have a bad reputation!’ I said. The evil-eyed man and the officer next to me both smiled; the one in front had already fallen asleep before the plane had even taken off.
    ‘You’re right,’ the officer next to me said. ‘It’s like the policeman who shot the fifteen-year-old boy in the riots in Athens a few months ago as well. They are all arseholes.’
    I’d forgotten about the story that was all over the news. A Greek police officer had shot a fifteen-year-old boy at pointblank range and the Greek public had been protesting.
    The plane began to head slowly towards the runway. The engine roared and we began to shake. Before I knew it, the plane began to accelerate. My head pounded with tension, I shut my eyes and massaged my temples to try to release the pain. The friction between the plane’s wheels and hard runway stopped – I knew that the next time the wheels touched the ground I’d be in Greece.

    I can visualise my extradition so vividly even though it feels like an eternity ago. I had no idea where I was going to be taken, how I was going to be treated, how I would feel or how long it would take for me to finally clear my name and go back home to my family. Despite the many ‘unknowns’, there was one thing I could be sure of: it was going to take a great amount of inner strength to endure whatever was to come.
    I’d been battling for justice like I’d never battled before, and I felt like I’d already been through so much. In truth, it was just the beginning.

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PART II
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    You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.
    – Marcus Aurelius

23 July 2009, the Daily Telegraph
STUDENT ACCUSED OF GREECE NIGHTCLUB KILLING EXTRADITED
    Andrew Symeou, a student accused of killing British teenager Jonathan Hiles in a Greek nightclub, was extradited on Thursday. Symeou denies the allegations and says he was not even in the nightclub at the time of the alleged attack on Mr Hiles.
    Mr Symeou, 20, from Enfield, north London, is accused of manslaughter following the death of Mr Hiles in a nightclub in Zakynthos on the island of Zante in 2007.
    He fought the extradition, with his lawyers saying the evidence against him was fabricated and obtained by Greek police through the violent intimidation of witnesses.
    Symeou denies the allegations and says he was not even in the nightclub at the time of the alleged attack on Mr Hiles, 18, from Llandaff North, Cardiff.
    Earlier this year he failed in his bid to get the High Court to refuse his extradition under a European Arrest Warrant.
    He won permission to take his appeal to the House of Lords but the Law Lords last week refused to hear the case.
    Symeou flew to Greece from Heathrow Airport on Thursday morning after surrendering to police at Belgravia Police Station in central London.
    Campaigners against Symeou’s extradition fear he could be held in jail for months before the case is heard. Symeou himself has said he is worried he will be beaten by police.
    Jago Russell, chief executive of Fair Trials International, which is supporting Symeou, said: ‘It is a tragedy that, despite the serious flaws in the case against him, Andrew Symeou has been sent to Greece.
    ‘We hope the Greek courts will do a better job of delivering justice than the British andthat this young man will not