An 82-year-old man who set fire to his son’s home in Thessaloniki last November has been returned to prison after an appeals court upheld his conviction while reducing his sentence.
The Thessaloniki Three-Member Misdemeanor Court found him guilty of intentional arson and damage to another person’s property, recognizing the mitigating factor of his previously law-abiding life. His prison term was reduced from four years and three months to three years and two months, without suspension or conversion.
Despite being eligible to seek house arrest because of his age, the defendant asked to serve the remainder of his sentence in prison, where he has been held since the incident. “I won’t harm anyone if I’m released, but I don’t want to go home and put my wife in prison too,” he told the court.
The defendant admitted deliberately setting the fire, saying he first ensured no one was inside the house. He apologized to his son’s family and said he acted neither out of revenge nor to “relieve” himself. He claimed his son was a long-term substance user, causing years of family problems.
The court also heard allegations that he had set fire to another son’s home in a separate incident, although that case was never brought to trial. “At some point, we have to be a family again,” he said. [AMNA]
