MUMMY’S BOYS
MOTHER DEFENDS ACCUSED MACRIS KILLERS
THE mother of two brothers accused of murdering former Sydney underworld figure John Macris in cold blood insists they are “very good gentlemen” who are innocent.
Yuliyanov J Raychev Serafim and Milen Raychev were to hear the verdict of an Athens court on Monday night (AEST) over the 2018 killing in Greece.
The Bulgarian brothers, who deny the charges, were accused of following Macris for 19 days before he was executed in his car outside his home in Voula — a crime caught on CCTV.
Police claimed to have found clothes matching those in the footage in Serafim’s hotel room, along with a receipt, and said he had rented a car in his own name.
He had fled Greece the day after the October 31, 2018, murder but had returned in April 2019 when he was arrested, with police suspecting he was planning another hit.
But the mother of the accused, who asked for her name not to be published, said her boys were “gentlemen” and offered her sympathy to Macris’s widow, Viktoria Karida, a former Playboy model.
“I’m very sorry about the lady, I’m sorry for her loss, but my kids is not that kind of persons,” she said in English.
“My kids is very good gentlemen.
“I don’t believe that they do that kind of thing, to kill someone.
“And they have all families and kids. They never can do that kind of things, they have respect for the people.” The hit has been linked by authorities to a Canadian branch of the notorious Outlaws motorcycle gang. Serafim has a tattoo of the club’s insignia on his left arm, according to photographs taken at his arrest.
Macris, 46, (pictured below) left Sydney in 2013 and set up a new life in Athens, where he ran a security business that gained lucrative government contracts.
Serafim, who is in his 30s, had links to Australian crime figures in Canada and two brothers, who had different names but similar descriptions, were charged with kidnapping, robbery and extortion there in 2011.
Their mother, who lives in Canada, said she had been staying in Bulgaria to help look after her grandchildren.
“You know, like I don’t know what I can say more than that I believe my kids, I am the mother, I have the feeling, you know, like when I look at my kids I know they are telling the truth,” she said.
“Their eyes tell everything.”
Macris’s two children found out how their father died by watching the execution clip on YouTube after hearing their friends talk at school.
A Greek court heard that a Nissan Pulsar the brothers had rented was seen on CCTV footage passing Macris’s house six times on the days before the shooting. They were also spotted in the same cafe where Macris had been eating.