Doujon Zammit trial: Accused admits causing injury, denies intent to kill

The nightclub bouncer accused of the murder of Maltese-Australian Doujon Zammit has admitted injuring the 20-year-old but denied he intended to kill him.

Marios Antonopoulos is facing a jury over the savage battering suffered by Zammit outside a disco on the island of Mykonos in August 2008. He died two days later when life support machines were switched off.

Those following the trial on the Greek Island of Lesbos include Zammit's parents Rosemarie and Oliver Zammit, Kostas Gribilas who received Zammit's donor heart and the mother of the accused. She broke down at the opening of the trial, saying she wanted to hug the Zammit family because she too felt she had lost a son, the Australian media reported.

Antonopoulos faces life imprisonment if convicted. Three other men face lesser charges. George Chatzioannou and Dimitris Varonas have pleaded not guilty to being accessories to murder and attempted murder. Bar owner Stamatis Daktylidis denies supplying the batons used.

The trial was told that the four claimed they were policemen when they stopped Doujon and his friends, lined them against a wall and searched them, before beating them up. They had chased them out of a disco after claims, since dismissed, of having stolen wallets and handbags.