On this day, the double murder in the Courts of Ioannina in 1994 – Deputy Prosecutor S. Spyrou and Police Officer K. Zambalas are dead

It was a rainy Monday exactly 29 years ago, November 7, 1994, when Ioannina and Panhellenium were shocked by an unprecedented incident that took place in the Ioannina Courthouse.

In the room of the Single-Member Criminal Court of Ioannina, cases are heard with the District Prosecutor, Deputy Prosecutor Spyros Spyrou, originally from Arta.

Around 12:00 noon, Kostas Bintos, a public works contractor, bursts into the area, from the back entrance and exit door of the judges, armed.

Under the trench coat he was wearing, he hid a loaded carbine.

In a real frenzy he was targeting the judges and asking for his bad check case to be settled.

Deputy Prosecutor Spyros Spyrou tried to calm him down, but to no avail since the perpetrator seemed to be in a state of amok. He raised the gun and started shooting.

Deputy Prosecutor Spyros Spyrou was killed by shrapnel while the secretary was injured.

On his way out of the Courthouse, he shoots two more people, injuring them.

At that time Konstantinos Zambalas arrives at the courts accompanied by a female prisoner.

In his attempt to approach to disarm and arrest the armed assailant, Konstantinos Zambalas falls dead from shrapnel from his carbine.

Police officers who arrived at the scene were deployed in an attempt to immobilize the attacker. During the arrest operation, he shoots and injures chief guard Nikos Yiannopoulos before his colleagues neutralize him with a bullet to the chest.

He was taken to the hospital where he was treated under guard. When he came out, he was taken to the Prosecutor and with the agreement of the Investigator, he was remanded in custody.

In June 1995, Konstantinos Bintos was brought to the Preveza Joint Jury Court, which sentenced him to two years of life imprisonment and an additional 25 years in prison, without any mitigation.

The GAP of Epirus honoring the memory of Kontantinos Zambalas states:

On this day in 1994, Chief Warden Konstantinos Zambalas was mortally wounded, during the transfer of a prisoner to the forecourt of the Ioannina Courthouse, by the assailant who had previously fatally wounded the Prosecutor of the single-member Criminal Court of Ioannina.

▪He was born in 1964 in Germany & in 1994 he served in the Ioannina Security Department.
▪Constable Konstantinos Zambalas was awarded the rank of Chief Constable. We Don’t Forget

Edited by: Giorgos Efstathiou