Doctors could face life in prison after Greek pop star dies in clinic

Prosecutors have upgraded charges against two doctors at the Athens clinic where pop star Giorgos Mazonakis died last week during a plasma-exchange session.

The pair, a married couple, are in custody and are due to answer a charge of homicide with possible intent — a count that can carry up to life imprisonment, though some reports have also cited a 20-year maximum for a related manslaughter formulation.

Police say the doctors tried to conceal evidence after Mazonakis, 54, died of cardiac arrest on 9 September.

“We are trying to determine the way in which the two accused, or whoever else may have been involved… essentially attempted to hide important details in the investigation,” police spokeswoman Konstantia Dimoglidou told ERT. “The digital evidence refutes what the two accused said in their testimony.”

The pathologist who ran the clinic and his wife, registered as a non-specialist doctor, deny responsibility. They say Mazonakis lost consciousness before treatment started.

Plasma exchange is a complex, sometimes risky procedure that normally needs a full medical team. The Athens Medical Association (ISA) says the premises were licensed only as a pathology practice and had no right to offer the treatment. Senior ISA official Polytimi Leonardou, who inspected the site, told ERT the clinic “illegally had two plasma exchange devices” and that one of them ran for 42 minutes while Mazonakis was there.

The method was developed for conditions such as multiple sclerosis; it is now also sold as an anti-ageing treatment. The health ministry has said Greece has no dedicated rules for anti-ageing clinics. “We must find the gaps in the system,” Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis said outside the cemetery where Mazonakis was buried on Monday.

Mazonakis was among Greece’s best-known pop singers, with platinum albums across more than three decades. A retrospective concert had been set for 20 September in Athens. Thousands, including many entertainers, attended a Sunday vigil at a church in his home district of Nikaia, in western Athens.

Source AFP

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