The Greek Wall Page 18

  “Greek is fine.”

  “Great! We met earlier, three days ago, but let me introduce myself: Agent Evangelos, from Directorate C of the National Intelligence Service. Do you know why you’re here, in this office?”

  “Yes.”

  “Tell me.”

  “You arrested me in connection with certain events that took place in the Evros region. I didn’t kill that individual.”

  “What individual?”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You say you’re not responsible for the death of some person or other. What person are you referring to?”

  “But… The man… the man I struggled with —”

  “You don’t know his name?”

  “I know nothing about him, it was night, I had no idea who he was, he jumped on me, and then…”

  “You killed him?”

  “I don’t think so. I wasn’t the one who killed him.”

  “I don’t believe you. No one will believe you.”

  “I didn’t kill him, I’ve never killed anyone.”

  “You fought with this individual outside the Eros brothel, and ended by striking him with an axe.”

  “I swear to you, it wasn’t me who struck him with the axe.”

  “You cut off his head, you beheaded Andreas Batsis, born in Piraeus on 9 January 1976.”

  “It wasn’t me, it was —”

  “You killed that man with a blow from an axe, why deny the obvious?”

  “It wasn’t me. It was… It was that girl. She was out of her mind, she had a crazy look in her eyes.”

  “Now we’re getting somewhere! I was sure you’d accuse that poor girl. What do you know about her?”

  “Nothing, nothing! I’d never seen her before.”

  “You didn’t know who she was, yet you combined forces with her in disposing of a headless corpse, after which you made your escape together —”

  “We were both terrified. I was acting impulsively, on reflex. I saw right away that I was in a situation in which the only solution was to escape. And I felt sorry for the girl. She’s a prostitute, she —”

  “Keep to the point! I know who the girl is, and I know her story. It’s yours that interests me.”

  “But it was you who asked if I knew who she was —”

  “Let’s continue. You killed Batsis. The girl, who was completely under the influence of drugs, helped you to move the body and —”

  “No, I didn’t kill that man.”

  “Well, that poor girl, for whom you felt such sympathy, is the one who insists it was you who took the axe to the victim.”

  “I don’t understand. Why would she?”

  “Now listen to me. I’m going to ask you to go over everything from the start, and I’ll take down your statement. I’m going to write out everything you tell me. Please begin with the reasons for your presence in Greece. Tell me why you went to that brothel – the Eros, isn’t it?”

  “The Eros, yes. But I’d never been there before.”

  “I don’t care. I’m not asking you to justify anything, I’m just trying to establish the facts, do you understand?”

  “Yes.”

  An explosion rings out below, followed by two others. Agent Evangelos gets up, closes the window and sees the demonstrators running to take shelter in front of the football stadium across the road; he sees the riot police charging, batons raised.

  “Do you know what’s going on outside, down in the street?”

  “No.”

  “Those are the ‘No Wall’ people.”

  “The what?”

  “Demonstrators shouting ‘No Wall! No Wall!’ They don’t want your wall.”

  “It’s not my wall.”

  “It could have been.”

  “I’m sorry, but what happened had nothing to do with the wall.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “I was driving along that road and I saw that sign, saying Eros, so —”

  “You’ll tell me all about that later. So you were in the Evros region to investigate the construction of a wall, isn’t that right?”

  “I was scouting things out, preparing to offer a surveillance system to the army. That was my job.”

  “And you thought your wall wouldn’t upset anyone?”

  “I’m not sure I understand.”

  “Would you like us to switch to English?”

  “No, it’s not my language, but —”

  “Nikos, may I call you that? Can I call you Nikos, like your woman friend Lazaridou?”

  “You talked to Christina? But why? You had no right, she has nothing to do with this business!”

  “What business?”

  “The wall, the fight, everything! Please leave Christina out of all this.”

  “You see how everything is connected: your woman friend, the wall, the fight.”

  “I’ve told you the truth about that man’s death. I’m innocent.”

  “Okay, that’s your version of the facts, I’m taking note of it. What about the wall?”

  “I’ve nothing to say.”

  “Tell me, Nikos, when did you recognize that you were being led up the garden path by the colonel?”

  “I don’t know any more. Maybe the day when he failed to turn up for our meeting without calling to explain. But even before that I felt I was being watched. I had a feeling of being very alone, suddenly, just like that. People stopped answering my phone calls. I lost contact with Athens, though everything seemed to have begun on the right foot. I’d made an excellent offer, the colonel and I had checked things out on the frontier, at Nea Vyssa, on the right bank, west of the river, near that triangle of land along the Turkish border.”

  “The Karaağaç Triangle, as they call it on the other side. Now, tell me how you ended up in that brothel… By the way, if I’m using a typewriter, it’s because we haven’t got a spare computer. Mine isn’t working just now, and we’re poorly equipped – the crisis, you know. Maybe you’ve heard about it?”

  Nikolaus Strom is holding his head in his hands. Outside, it sounds like a war. The detonations from the tear-gas guns shake the windowpanes; the roar of the crowd is rising; it reaches the eighth floor of the GADA building and enters the office of Agent Evangelos, who is sitting at his typewriter.

  “You’ll sign the statement once we’ve heard your entire confession.”

  Confession of Nikolaus Strom, born 21 April 1971 in Hamburg. Office No. 78, GADA, Athens, 7 January 2011. Interrogation conducted by Agent Evangelos of Division C of the National Intelligence Service.

  In May 2009, Nikolaus Strom submitted a bid to the Greek Ministry of Defence for the construction of a wall along the river Evros.

  In the past, Strom had already sold security systems for use in frontier zones in Israel and Turkey, in southeastern Anatolia.

  He defended the quality of his bid, making two excellent arguments: his experience, and an unbeatable price. According to Strom, the budget announced by the Greek government, which at the time was seeking European financial assistance to build the wall, was extremely inflated.

  Strom believed that his Greek descent through his mother would work in his favour.

  As soon as his bid reached the Ministry of National Defence it was studied by the high command of the Greek Armed Forces. Colonel Alecos Papadopoulos, of Frontier Security, took personal charge of the file. Strom’s bid, which was considered interesting, underwent an initial assessment that resulted in a recommendation to pursue it further, as was communicated in a letter addressed to Strom’s residence in Athens.

  Following his initial communications with Colonel Papadopoulos, which were never by email but always via telephone, Strom visited the Evros region on two occasions between 2009 and 2011.

  On 1 December 2010, Strom was invited by Colonel Papadopoulos to carry out an initial survey of the site, in the commune of Orestiada, along twelve and a half kilometres of land frontier. This meeting took place, and Nikolaus Strom obtained a verbal
assurance from the colonel that a contract would be signed. Subsequently, however, Strom lost all contact with the colonel, who became unreachable and failed to attend a second meeting arranged to take place in Orestiada on 17 December 2010. Distraught, Strom remained in the region attempting to contact the colonel, without success. During this entire period, but especially on the days preceding the scheduled meeting with Colonel Papadopoulos, Strom sensed that he was being followed.

  On 20 December 2010, Nikolaus Strom received a phone call from Colonel Papadopoulos arranging to meet that evening in a “bar” situated alongside National Road E90, just outside the village of Didimoticho in the direction of Orestiada. The colonel claimed that this was the most discreet location in which to discuss the proposal, adding that the premises were secure and under his control. Strom therefore rented a car and followed the Colonel’s instructions.

  When he arrived, he noticed a neon sign advertising the Eros brothel. Looking for the entrance, he walked around the building, which was poorly lit, and stumbled into some sheets hung out to dry. At that moment a light went on and he saw a terrified young woman who seemed to be escaping from something or someone. She was holding an axe, as if to defend herself. When he stood up and told her she had no reason to fear him, she brandished the axe and began shouting.

  Seeing that the girl was “terrified”, as he put it, and feeling threatened by the axe, Strom stepped to one side and grasped the young woman’s arm, at which point she dropped the axe.

  A man came on the scene. He attacked Strom, throwing him to the ground. Strom resisted, struggling with the unidentified man, who attempted to strike him with the axe. The young woman then kicked the unknown man in the back, allowing Strom to free himself. The axe had fallen to the ground again. Picking it up, the girl delivered a heavy blow to the neck of the assailant, who was attempting to get to his feet. The man collapsed, and blood spurted out, for his head was almost severed from his body.

  In their panic, Strom and the young woman joined forces to carry the corpse along a dirt path. In this process, the head became detached from the rest of the body.

  Strom and the girl then made their escape on foot. They finally reached a small, deserted railway station. Nikolaus Strom explained to the terrified girl that they had to wait. Retracing his steps, he found his car. But before reaching the car park he discovered that the body had disappeared. Only the head remained, farther up the path, near the brothel. He recognized the man’s face; he had seen those features somewhere before.

  On reaching his car, Strom put his bloodstained jacket in the boot and drove to the hotel in Orestiada, where he changed his clothes and settled his bill. He then found another hotel on the outskirts of the village, the Hotel Europa, and went back to fetch the girl. They spent twenty-four hours in this hotel room. The girl was panicking. Strom did not know what to do. The next day he told her he was going to buy each of them a warm coat and hire another car. He planned to leave the region, drive to Thessalonica and enter the Republic of Macedonia.

  In Orestiada, Strom observed that there was considerable activity around the police station. He encountered several patrol cars, and did not dare to rent a car. He began by hiding his vehicle in a wooded area near the river, and burned the bloodstained coat that was still in the boot. By the time he returned to the Europa Hotel on foot, night was falling. He regretted having brought the girl along, for she seemed most unresourceful, though he now admits that he was afraid that she would go to the police and tell them everything.

  When he reached the hotel room, the young woman had disappeared. Overcome by fear, he packed his bag and walked to the bus stop farthest from the town centre. He took the first bus to Alexandroupolis. It was then he realized that he had left his mobile on the bedside table in the Hotel Europa.

  The following day, Strom took time to reflect. Telling himself that the police must already be looking for him, he tried to cover his tracks and avoided major roads. After spending three days hiding in Alexandroupolis, he decided to travel to Kavala by way of Samothrace. He thought that in Kavala he would have a safe hiding place in the Imaret Hotel, where he had stayed as a guest in the past, and where he hoped no one would think of looking for him. When the police came to search the hotel, he managed to make his escape on foot. He planned to cross into Bulgaria and go to the German Embassy in Sofia.

  Directorate C of the National Intelligence Service

  Report of 7 January 2011 – GADA-ATH

  File No. ZYAXB-28265-10

  Written statement of Nikolaus Strom, national of the Federal Republic of Germany. Interrogation conducted by AE in GADA, 07/01/11

  BORN: 21 April 1971, Hamburg, Germany

  NATIONALITY: German (Father – Hans Strom, 1938); Greek (Mother – Melina Tsaltas, 1946)

  MARITAL STATUS: Single

  PROFESSION: Salesman

  INTERROGATION OF THE ACCUSED: 3 January 2011/Nea Vyssa military zone/Orestiada/Evros Administrative Unit

  DETENTION: Isolation Cell – GADA-ATH, 03/01/11–07/01/11

  STATEMENT OF NIKOLAUS STROM

  I acknowledge that I visited the Evros region on two occasions, between 2009 and 2011, with the objective of gathering technological and security data.

  I acknowledge that on 3 January 2011, I illegally entered a Greek military zone, on the territory of Nea Vyssa, Commune of Orestiada, Evros Regional Unit.

  I acknowledge that on 3 January 2011 I ignored the signs forbidding access to the above military zone.

  I acknowledge that on 3 January 2011 I photographed military installations, such as watchtowers, cameras and access roads.

  I acknowledge that on 3 January 2011 I photographed the technology of a barbed-wire wall intended to secure 12.5 km of frontier between Greece and Turkey.

  I acknowledge that on 1 December 2010, I abused the trust of Colonel Alecos Papadopoulos, who knew nothing of my true intentions, having been informed that I was a journalist reporting for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. During a press tour of the military frontier zone organized by the Greek army I recorded his words without his knowledge and illegally took a series of photographs.

  I acknowledge that, under the cloak of my own commercial activities, which are related to military security, I attempted to assemble as much economic information of a political or commercial character as possible, including proprietary technological, financial and commercial data, in addition to government information, all of which were liable to contribute directly or indirectly to increasing the productivity and improving the competitiveness of German industry.

  I acknowledge using or seeking to use illegal, clandestine, coercive or deceptive means to obtain economic information.

  I hereby plead guilty to the charges of economic and industrial espionage on behalf of German industry and with the complicity of the Federal Republic of Germany, under the aegis of various private companies acting directly on behalf of German intelligence, starting with my own company, Security Fence Material GmbH.

  Signed: Nikolaus Strom

  Agent Evangelos leans over the top of his tiny desk, saying nothing more. Elbows on the desk, he observes Nikolaus Strom reading and rereading the statement. Outside, the noise of the demonstration has moved away, and the clean-up trucks are already at work on Alexandras Avenue. At this moment, the battle with the riot police must be raging in the Exarcheia district.

  He observes Nikolaus Strom, whose face gives no hint of surprise.

  “So?”

  “What happens if I don’t sign?”

  “The question is superfluous, Nikos.”

  “I was just asking out of curiosity,” says Nikolaus Strom, picking up the pen from the desk.

  “Just sign! Once you’ve done that, I’ll explain a few things.”

  Nikolaus Strom signs. He signs, and looks at Agent Evangelos with the same peculiar expression as when he entered the office an hour before.

  Agent Evangelos verifies the signatures, asks him to initial two pages at the botto
m, watches him as he does so, and senses Nikos’s weariness, his enormous fatigue.

  “Good! Now listen. To answer your question, if you had refused to sign I would have done everything in my power to make you do so. I’d have told you that you didn’t have any choice, that the alternative was to go on trial for Batsis’s murder.”

  “I wouldn’t have believed you. Otherwise, why would you have offered me an arrangement like that? It’s in your interest to keep that man’s death secret. My guilt is of no interest to you.”

  “No,” answers Agent Evangelos. “but the truth is of interest to me. Your confession was essential, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t think you killed that man. I believe you; you didn’t lie to me.”

  “This business about spying is ridiculous. No one will believe it.”

  “You prefer the story about a businessman who decapitates a man in front of a brothel in the open countryside three kilometres from the Turkish border, with a hooker as his accomplice?”

  “You just said that you believed in my innocence.”

  “Anyway, you’ve signed.”

  “What’s going to happen to me now? And the girl? Will she be tried for murder?”

  “At this very moment, she must be moping somewhere in Moscow. There won’t be any trial for Batsis’s murder.”

  “You already released her?”

  “That murder is of no interest to anyone. And you’ll be tried for espionage by a military court. The affair will create an uproar; the finger will be pointed at Germany.”

  “Germany? I don’t understand. And why a military court?”

  “You are accused of espionage, Nikos. Merkel will have her knickers in a twist when she’s told that a German national was wandering about in a prohibited military zone on the Greco-Turkish border, in possession of memory cards with tons of photographs of the security installations.”

  “You know I’m not a spy! Germany, as you say, will be able to prove my innocence.”

  “Maybe. But whoever invented that fairy tale knows what he’s doing, and it’s in Greece’s interest.”

  “Who are you talking about?”

  “Let it drop! For as long as your trial lasts, Germany will be in a position of weakness. And then, to start with, the facts are that you’re a German, that you’ve shown an excessive interest in the Greek frontier – and may I remind you that you were in fact arrested in a military zone?”