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CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
UC Berkeley professor killed in Athens: Suspect claims he ‘did it all for' victim's ex-wife, leaked police confession reveals
Greek police lead the ex-wife of murdered UC Berkeley professor Przemyslaw Jeziorski to court in Athens on July 17, alongside her new boyfriend and three others alleged to be involved in the Polish educator's shooting on July 4. CNN has added blur to this image. (CNN Greece via CNN Newsource) On the morning of July 4, an American marketing professor was walking towards his ex-wife's house in Athens to pick up their two young children. It should have been an unremarkable, if strained visit – the couple had apparently been disputing the terms of custody arrangements. But Przemyslaw Jeziorski never made it to the front door. In broad daylight, in this typically quiet, suburban neighbourhood of Greece's capital, he was shot multiple times at close range, according to police. Jeziorski died where he fell, police said, his body riddled with gunshot wounds seen in grim photographs taken in the immediate aftermath. As eyewitnesses rushed to his aid, the masked gunman fled. The alleged perpetrator, arrested 12 days later: His ex-wife's new partner. The motive, he told police: to prevent Jeziorski from taking away her children. 'I did it all for (her) and our children so that we could have a normal life without problems,' he said, according to a transcript of a statement he made to police in the aftermath of his arrest for premeditated murder as well as illegal possession and use of a weapon. One of the most remarkable aspects of the case is that the statements made to police by the alleged perpetrators have been widely leaked to Greek media, including a CNN affiliate, CNN Greece. The statements, verified as authentic by a senior police source speaking to CNN, offer an insight into how the alleged murder plot was put together, why it was undertaken, and provide clues as to who may have known what, and when. But there are key questions unresolved, too – not least the role, if any, of Jeziorski's ex-wife. According to Greek police, she is facing moral accomplice charges, which she denies, according to her lawyer, who spoke to CNN. Like all the suspects in this case, her identity is known to CNN but cannot be published due to Greek legal restrictions. The alleged perpetrator's confession, and other conflicting accounts from three alleged accomplices that were also leaked to the press, sets up what is likely to be a lengthy and high-profile trial. Meanwhile, the killing and the aftermath have shocked the friends and family of the victim, who say Jeziorski was a kind and introverted academic who loved his children. Jeziorski, 43, who went by the nickname Przemek or 'PJ,' was an economist and tenured professor of marketing at the University of California Berkeley's Haas School of Business. He was born in Poland and moved to the United States in 2004 to study economics and math at the University of Arizona, and he went on to obtain his PhD from Stanford. 'He was one of the sharpest people I've ever met,' said Robert Kowalski, the victim's friend from Stanford. 'He was a great guy, a genius in many regards.' UC Berkeley said in a statement that Jeziorski 'had a passion for teaching' and during his 13 years at the California university, he taught data analytics skills to more than 1,500 graduate and PhD students. His research work centered on emerging markets, which took him around the world for field research, and Berkeley described him as 'a leading expert in quantitative marketing, industrial organization, and the economics of digital markets.' The dean of UC Berkeley's business school, Jenny Chatman, said she was 'heartbroken' by the death of Jeziorski, who she described as a 'beloved member of our marketing faculty.' Custody battle Jeziorski met his ex-wife – a Greek national – in San Francisco in 2013, and they got married the following year, according to Kowalski. The couple's twins were born shortly after. In 2015, the couple co-founded a start-up called Keybee, a short-term rental property management platform. It's unclear what led to their relationship falling apart, but Kowalski told CNN the couple broke up around 2020 after moving to Greece during the Covid pandemic. Their children are dual US and Polish citizens, according to a statement from the victim's brother. The children had applied for Greek citizenship and were awaiting a decision on that, according to the ex-wife's lawyer. Jeziorski filed for divorce in June 2021, according to California court records. It appears to be one element in a years-long custody battle for the children, who ultimately lived with their mother in Greece, with a provision that their father, Jeziorski, could take the children for one month every summer. According to Kowalski, Jeziorski asked during the custody battle that his children attend an American school in Greece, so that they could be able to attend high school or college in the US one day. But his ex-wife was afraid of losing the kids much sooner, according to the statement to police from the principal suspect, her boyfriend. 'We were afraid that he (Jeziorski) would end up taking the kids completely. That would completely finish off (my girlfriend), who was overly fond of them. This summer Przemek wanted to take the children and take them to America. But (my girlfriend) did not agree and so she went back to court with Przemek,' the suspect said, according to the testimony transcript. On July 3, a custody judgement ruled that Jeziorski was indeed allowed to take the children for a month. Conflicting confessions 'A month and a half ago I made the decision to end this torment we were experiencing once and for all,' the suspect told police, adding that it was a 'good opportunity' given that Jeziorski was in Athens to attend the custody hearing. The statement details how the suspect says he bought a pistol more than a month ago and asked a friend, who is from Bulgaria, to help him 'find Przemek and scare him so that he wouldn't take our children away from us.' He said it all began in Nafplio, a coastal city about two hours from Athens, 'so that it would appear that I was there' and his cell phone would 'leave traces.' The suspect said that that he, his friend and two others – a man and a teenager from Albania – he paid drove to Athens and waited on the same street as the ex-wife's house, where the suspect said he knew Jeziorski was coming that afternoon to pick up the kids. 'I approached him and shot him a few times, but I don't remember how many times,' he said. According to the statement, the men had rented a gray Porsche Cayenne as a getaway car, but the murder suspect told police that his accomplices left him at the scene after they saw him shoot the victim. Police said Jeziorski died at the scene, where seven bullet casings were found after a masked gunman shot him in the neck and chest. The three unnamed men who allegedly helped, two Albanian nationals and a Bulgarian national, are facing accomplice charges, police announced Thursday. The suspected accomplices – one of whom is a minor – have confessed to their peripheral involvement in the killing, a Greek police source told CNN on Thursday. CNN has been unable to reach attorneys for those men. 'My client has confessed his actions but as you can see from the simplicity of some of the things that took place this was not an organized plan. His accomplices only knew about a plan to scare him (the victim) so he would stay away from the children,' the main suspect's lawyer, Ermis Papoutsis, told CNN. '(The ex-wife), his partner, knew nothing about any of this.' 'My client had come to me in the past to seek advice. He had said his partner's ex-husband had serious alcoholism issues and that he and the mother were worried about allowing access to the kids. He wanted to see if there was something he could legally do about limiting access,' the lawyer added. 'Now he is completely devastated after what happened. We will ask for a psychiatric examination because he has had some issues in the past.' Jeziorski's friends have denied the allegations that he abused alcohol. On Friday, CNN Greece obtained the police testimony of the alleged accomplice from Bulgaria, which contradicts the account of the alleged gunman. In this account, the alleged accomplice claims the victim's ex-wife had 'organized the whole thing.' He described his friend, the perpetrator, obtaining a gun and then asking 'me to find some people to take him to Athens the next day to scare and threaten the Pole so that he would 'back down' on custody of the children.' 'In fact, from what he told me, (the ex-wife) made him do it because she didn't want to give the children to the Pole,' the accomplice said in the testimony,' adding that the perpetrator offered him thousands of euros after he 'did something we hadn't agreed on.' As for the ex-wife – beyond the statement of her lawyer, denying all knowledge, there is no further information about her testimony. 'We continue to maintain her innocence. Based on the case file and what we will present both in our written submission and during the oral proceedings in the main inquiry, we will highlight the key points that prove she had absolutely no involvement,' the ex-wife's lawyer, Alexandros Pasiatas, said outside the court Monday. 'She is innocent, she declares her innocence, just as she did at the start.' For reasons that are unclear, nothing from her statements to police have made their way to the Greek media. These inconsistencies – and other unanswered questions – will all be dealt with at the trial. 'Our family is heartbroken' Meanwhile, the victim's family are dealing with the aftermath of an unimaginable tragedy. The victim's brother said in a statement that 'our family is heartbroken,' but grateful to Greek police and security professionals who made the arrests. 'Przemek's ten-year-old children, who are US and Polish citizens, are now under care in accordance with Greek child custody procedures,' the victim's brother Łukasz Jeziorski said in a statement. 'Our primary concern is their safety and wellbeing, and helping them reconnect with their family to minimize the trauma they have already endured.' Jeziorski's family started an online fundraiser to repatriate his remains to his native Poland and pay for legal representation in Greece. A US State Department spokesperson told CNN the agency is providing consular assistance to the family. On Monday, the five suspects were appearing in person in court for their plea, according to Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, the lawyer representing the victim's family. The court will determine whether the suspects will be remanded in custody pending the trial. A trial date will be set at a later stage, Dimitrakopoulos told CNN. 'The victim's mother and brother will take sole custody of the children,' Dimitrakopoulos told Greek media on Friday. The lawyer said that 'we've talked to the prosecutor for minors so that the victim's mom and brother can get full custody of the kids and live with them in Poland, where they are now.' 'They have the opportunity to raise them in a loving environment, in a completely protective environment,' Dimitrakopoulos said, adding that 'if the mother is acquitted, because we respect the presumption of innocence, then she has the right to request sole custody of her children.' CNN's Amy Croffey and Chris Dos Santos contributed to this report. By Lauren Kent and Elinda Labropoulou, CNN
CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Toronto police arrest 11 suspects after officers allegedly assaulted at downtown protest
A Toronto Police Service logo patch is shown in Toronto, on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby Toronto police say officers were assaulted after they tried to clear a protest that was blocking a major downtown intersection on Saturday, leading to the arrests of 11 people. In a news release, police said officers attended a demonstration at Spadina Avenue and Front Street West at approximately 4:24 p.m. Officers issued a lawful direction for participants to clear the intersection and keep the demonstration moving, police said. 'Protesters refused and instead occupied an intersection, resulting in an unlawful assembly,' the news release read. After police said that officers directed the group to disperse a second time, they said some participants became aggressive and assaulted officers while 'resisting police efforts to restore order.' It's unclear what injuries, if any, the officers sustained following the alleged assaults. Eleven suspects from the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area were charged. The suspects and the charges laid against them can be found here. Toronto police arrest outstanding suspect wanted in alleged MP constituency office break-in One of the suspects arrested Saturday, police said, was wanted in connection with an alleged break-in at a Toronto MP's office in April. Police previously said that on April 24, several people were holding a demonstration outside the office near Keele Street and Lawrence Avenue West before they forced their way inside. Police did not identify the MP's office where the demonstration took place. The group allegedly occupied the area and caused staff members to fear for their safety, police said in a news release issued last week. Officers were called to remove the protesters from the property. During Saturday's protest, police said they recognized a woman in attendance as an outstanding suspect in their investigation. In addition to the four suspects previously charged in connection with the April 24 incident, 32-year-old Toronto resident Ahlam Mohammed was arrested and charged with forcible entry, mischief interfere with property, and unlawful assembly. It's unclear if they are facing any charges following the Saturday protest.
National Post
5 hours ago
- National Post
Jesse Kline: Give 16-year-olds the vote? Only if you want never-ending socialism
If you think politics is bad now, just wait till an army of pimple-faced teenagers who get most of their 'news' from TikTok are given a say over who's in charge. Article content This week, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that his Labour government will introduce legislation to enfranchise 16- and 17-year-olds before the next general election in the summer of 2029. Article content Article content Starmer justified the move by arguing that, 'It's really important that 16- and 17-year-olds have the vote, because they are old enough to go out to work. They are old enough to pay taxes, so pay in. Article content Article content 'And I think if you pay in, you should have the opportunity to say what you want your money spent on, which way the government should go.' Article content There's a certain logic to this argument, and I will admit to wrestling with the fact that 16-year-old me and 44-year-old me likely have very different opinions on this subject. Article content But the fact remains that although people as young as 16 may be able to enter the workforce and pay taxes (even if many of them don't), there are a lot of things they're legally prevented from doing, such as entering into contracts, getting married, buying alcohol and, in many jurisdictions, joining the military and getting a full driver's licence. Article content So if you think a 16-year-old is capable of making decisions affecting the fate of the country, and perhaps even the course of world history, fine. But then why wouldn't they be old enough to buy a bottle of Scotch, or drive without restrictions, or marry someone several years older than them? Article content Article content It's because society has set the age of 18 (or 19 in some Canadian provinces) as the cutoff point for when people become adults capable of making their own decisions in the eyes of the law. Article content There's no doubt that this is an arbitrary number. Perhaps it should be 14 given that, throughout much of history, people that young were given adult responsibilities. Or maybe it should be closer to 30, around the time when the human brain stops developing. Article content Regardless, we need to come up with some number to legally differentiate the age at which parents are no longer responsible for their children and young adults are responsible for their own actions. Article content Yet given that England and Wales raised the age at which people can legally marry from 16 to 18 just two years ago, it seems odd that the country now wants to give new freedoms to people who just had other rights stripped away — not to mention the fact that the age at which people can legally run for office will remain at 18.
