It was September 23, 1998, when all of Greece was shocked to watch a hostage case live on television.
A 27-year-old wanted man from Romania, Sorin Matei, entered the apartment of the Ginaki family, at 4 Niovis Street, in Kato Patisia, and held hostage the four people who were inside at the time.
In the house was the resident of the house Sultana Ginaki, her daughter Amalia, Vangelis' son and Amalia's fiance, Apostolos.
Mattei - under the influence of heroin - was holding a grenade in his hand, had informed the hostages that he did not intend to harm them and, using shoelaces, tied Amalia's wrists.
A little later he called the SKAI channel, whose director was Stamatis Malelis at the time, and asked to go on the air immediately.
The main news presenter of the channel, Nikos Evangeliatos, negotiated with him.
It should be noted that at that time neither the police nor the National Radio and Television Council asked for the call to be stopped.
The Romanian in his conversation with Evangelitos emphasized that he would not harm the hostages and asked for 500,000 drachmas (around 1500 euros). At the same time, he demanded the police to send him amphetamines so he could recover from heroin.
In response, they sent him a box of sleeping pills, but the perpetrator found out and, enraged, cut off communication with them, threatening to throw the grenade.
The journalist managed to calm Matei down and through negotiations to release the family's son at 8pm, who was also facing learning difficulties.
At around 10pm, the Chief of Police, Athanasios Vassilopoulos, believing that the grenade is a fake, ordered to cut off (after 4 hours) the criminal's telephone communication with SKAI.
At 11 in the evening, Mattei released Sultana Ginaki and then the policemen stormed the house, taking him by surprise.
They managed to remove everyone who was in the house except Amalia.
The grenade was real after all and it went off right behind her feet. She fought for 17 days to stay alive, but finally succumbed to her injuries.
The head of the police, Lt. Gen. Athanasios Vassilopoulos, was also injured by the fragments of the grenade, who was taken to the 401 military hospital with minor injuries to his face and a ruptured left ear drum, the deputy chief of the police and later its leader, Lt. Gen. Ioannis Georgakopoulos, who was treated to the Red Cross with serious injuries to the left eye, Vasilios Tsiatouras, head of that department and later police chief, Giorgos Markopoulos, a security policeman with minor injuries and Giorgos Paliouras, driver of Athanasios Vassilopoulos, whose one leg was amputated .
The police chief was initially suspended for involuntary manslaughter, but was eventually cleared of all charges in 2005.
27-year-old Matei stayed at the General State Hospital for two days and then, when the director of the clinic decided that he was not in danger, he was transferred to the Korydallos prison hospital.
That night he was found dead.
According to the medical examiner, death was due to suffocation due to aspiration of vomit combined with prolonged sedation.
The Ginaki family filed a lawsuit against the State asking for compensation of 700 million drachmas. Giorgos Paliouras, the driver of Athanasios Vassilopoulos, who was amputated by the explosion, also brought an action for moral damage against the public. Specifically, due to his amputation, he was deemed incapable of any work and retired at the age of just 39.
The Three-member Administrative Court of First Instance of Athens ruled that the Greek State is responsible when it does not take the necessary measures with a plan and provisions for the maximum possible safety of the men of the Hellenic Army and awarded it compensation due to moral damage of 300,000 euros. The Sky television station also received severe criticism for the broadcast of the hostage situation. On the occasion of this fact, the National Radio and Television Council imposed a fine of 50 million drachmas on the Sky television station for the live broadcast with the house of Niovis Street and Sorin Mattei.
Before Niobe
This was not the first time that Sorin Matei had been in trouble with the police. Before the night of Niovis Street, in 1995 in particular, he had been accused of attempted murder and several robberies, but he had managed to escape from the courts of Evelpida shortly before the hearing of his case, only to be arrested later and taken to the prisons of Corfu.
On March 10, 1996, he escaped from the prisons of Corfu together with other inmates only to be arrested again. In the same month he escapes from the "Georgios Gennimatas" hospital, is arrested and a few days later is taken to the Larissa prison from where he escapes once again.
On May 7, 1997, the police found him by chance in a roadblock and took him to the psychiatric hospital of Korydallos prisons.
In July 1998 he was transferred to the prison of Agios Stefanos in Patras, but during his stay he escaped from the transit department of Patras and returned to Athens.
On September 5 of the same year, the police were led on his trail after the arrest of his accomplice Panagiotis Halepas.
However, in the invasion of Mattei's house, the police are surprised as Mattei, having suspected an ambush, is waiting for them holding a gun and two grenades. After taking the constable of the security department of Chalkida Thanasis Krystallogiannis as a hostage, he headed by car on the Athens-Lamias highway and escaped after several hours of wandering despite the police escort.
Finally, somewhere in Piraeus, he abandoned the car and the policeman and boarded a taxi in an unknown direction. After this incident the police officers came face to face with Sorin Mattei for the second time in a rural area of Larissa, but after an exchange of gunfire he escaped.
After several investigations, the police located him a few days later in Athens, but fearing an accident, he preferred to wait for the right moment. The opportunity came on the evening of September 23 when a friend of his, Penelope Athanasopoulou, who lived on the ground floor of an apartment building at 4 Niovis Street, visited.
In the presence of a prosecutor, the special forces of the Police invaded the area and confronted Matei. A stun grenade was used during the fight and an officer hit him with the handle of a gun. However, Matei finally managed to escape through the skylight and enter the apartment on the first floor of the apartment building.
According to the police, the prosecutor Ioannis Sakkas had given an order not to shoot under any circumstances during the operation.