A mixed justice-juror appellate court in Athens on Monday reduce the previous life sentences handed down against two local men for the murder of a Pakistani migrant worker in January 2013, after unanimously upholding the conviction.
The pair, riding a motorcycle, accosted Sahzat Lukman in the pre-dawn hours as he was bicycling to work at an outdoor fruit-and-vegetable market in the central Athens neighborhood of Petralona and stabbed him to death.
By a 6-1 vote, the sentence was reduced to 21 years and five months for each defendant.
A racist motive in the homicide was acknowledged, although the court ruled that there was no link with the ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn party as far as this specific offense is concerned.
Several people in the courtroom angrily reacted to the reduced sentence, with a riot police squad intervening to clear the chamber.
