
Sokrat Vata, the 29-year-old identified by the Police as the suspected perpetrator of the murder of a French citizen aged around 20 in Ksamil, turns out to have a criminal record in the United Kingdom.
In an article published by the BBC in 2024, it is reported that Vata was sentenced to five years in prison by Cambridge Crown Court, after pleading guilty to a series of criminal offenses related to drug trafficking and dangerous driving.
According to the BBC, Vata, then 27, was involved in two separate pursuits by British police, in Cambridge and Kent. One of the incidents took place on April 13, 2024, on the A20 near East Malling. According to the report, Vata failed to obey a police order to stop and was pursued by officers. During the pursuit, the vehicle he was driving overturned. Vata was not immediately arrested, but inside the vehicle, police found several bags of cocaine and license plates.
Meanwhile, on April 30, he was involved in another police pursuit, this time in Cambridge, where he was driving a stolen car. During the escape, Vata stopped to drop off a passenger and then continued to Clara Rackham Street. There, he abandoned the vehicle and fled on foot.
According to British police, during his escape he threw a package of cocaine into a bush. The escape ended when officers found him hiding in the back yard of a Cambridge apartment. £560 in cash was found in his pockets, while other license plates were seized from the vehicle. Tests also showed that Vata had driven the vehicle under the influence of drugs. On September 25, 2024, Cambridge Crown Court sentenced Vata to five years in prison.
According to the BBC, he had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of class A drugs with intent to distribute, two counts of dangerous driving, possession of cannabis and driving under the influence of drugs.