[6][7][8][9][10] At the time of his death he was a journalist at Proto Thema (Greece's largest newspaper by circulation), working closely with Themos Anastasiadis its owner.

"[22] At approximately 5:30 (UTC) on 19 July 2010, three men dressed as security personnel and wearing bullet-proof vests arrived at Sokratis Giolias's residence in the suburbs of Athens.

[15][23] In the wake of the shooting, police, after ballistic testing, identified the bullets as being fired by the same guns used by a violent terrorist group called the Sect of Revolutionaries.

[24][25][26][27] According to the test results released by the police, both weapons used to kill Giolias had previously been used in the shooting of anti-terrorist policeman Nektarios Savvas, who had been guarding the home of a witness in a terrorism trial in early February 2009.

According to the court record, Manolis Sfakianakis had personally informed Sokratis Giolias for a contract killing against him, based on phone call conversation he had with him on 16 July 2010.

"[52] In response to the shooting, Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament Philippos Petsalnikos gave an interview in which he expressed his "outrage and grief at this heinous and murderous act".

[22] This was followed shortly by government spokesman Giorgos Petalotis who held a press conference where he stated that, "Democracy and freedom of speech cannot be gagged, terrorized or intimidated.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) released a statement of their own shortly after the shooting in which it "ask[ed] the Greek authorities to ensure that this murder will be investigated quickly and thoroughly and that the public be informed of its progress continuously."