Four of nine men charged in the beating death of a 22-year-old American tourist outside a bar on a Greek island appeared before a judge Thursday for initial testimony, a day after the other five suspects were jailed pending trial.
The four, all Serb nationals, were being questioned over the July 7 death of Bakari Henderson, who was assaulted outside a bar in Zakynthos island's rowdy tourist area of Lagana.
A total of nine men — one Greek, seven Serbs and a British citizen of Serb origin — have been charged with intentional homicide.
Henderson, of Austin, Texas, had recently graduated from the University of Arizona and was in Greece working on a photo shoot to launch a clothing line, his family has said.
Greek police spokesman Theodoros Chronopoulos said the exact cause of the fight was unclear, but that it started shortly after Henderson took a selfie with one of the bar's waitresses.
One of the suspects apparently spoke with the waitress and possibly with Henderson, and the tourist then appears to have either broken or placed a bottle of beer on the table of the group of Serbs, Chronopoulos said.
A fight broke out and Henderson was chased down the street. Video footage from a nearby security camera aired on Greek television shows Henderson running down the sidewalk and being pursued. One man tackled him, throwing him onto a parked car before others joined in the beating.
The five suspects who testified in a 12-hour session Wednesday are expected to be moved from police holding cells to prison by the end of the week. The investigating judge was to decide later Thursday whether to remand the other four in custody pending trial or set bail. No trial date has been set.
