The three brothers wanted in connection with the deadly vendetta in Voriza, in the municipality of Phaistos, have surrendered to police authorities. Arrest warrants had been issued against the men, aged 19, 27 and 29, for their alleged role in the Heraklion vendetta shootings.
According to police sources, the brothers arranged a meeting point with officers between Heraklion and Messara, where they turned themselves in.
Earlier on Wednesday morning, police had raided a hotel in the regional unit of Heraklion following reports that one of the suspects was hiding there. Although no one was found, the hotel owner and his son were detained and are expected to face charges for harbouring fugitives.
Family members plead for calm after Heraklion vendetta
Shortly after the surrender, the wife of the 29-year-old suspect- mother to a five-year-old child and a ten-day-old baby- issued an emotional plea to the women of the opposing Kargakis family to “let the children live” and prevent further bloodshed.
She told reporters that women have the power to influence their families for the sake of their children and insisted she saw no weapons on her family’s side during the incident. However, she said she clearly saw the man firing an assault rifle from an elevated position at her brother-in-law’s home, whose wife is pregnant.
Describing the scene, she claimed that 39-year-old Fanouris was driving a 4×4 vehicle “holding both a pistol and a Kalashnikov,” shooting indiscriminately. “Bullets were flying through the yard where my child was playing,” she said, adding that her husband pulled her indoors to protect her and their newborn baby.
The woman further alleged that a bomb was placed at her brother-in-law’s house, calling it a grave act of disrespect given the pregnancy in the family. She said she believes the gunman from above was the one who killed their aunt, and that they had waited for the brothers to surrender before giving their testimony.
Their mother also spoke publicly, offering her own version of events as the families on both sides of the Heraklion vendetta continue to call for justice and restraint.
Also read: Vorizia vendetta: Two dead in Crete shooting
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