Kypseli case: “I pressured him to register the children,” uncle says

“The only thing I can do is help him,” the uncle of the 43-year-old man at the center of the Kypseli case told MEGA. He said he could not simply tell his nephew to leave, but could shelter him for only another 20 days to a month while he found a home.

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The only thing I can do is help him, nothing else. I cannot tell him, 'Get up and leave.'

The uncle and aunt said they would not leave their relative homeless, regardless of what had happened. The aunt said he was family and that they had never refused a home to someone in need. The uncle, however, said his nephew would eventually have to leave and that his mother would send money for him to rent a small house.

The uncle claimed that the man's wife had been a minor when he took her from an institution. He said they left together for Greece, describing their relationship as one based on love while also using the word “kidnapping.” He added that he had not known the nine-year-old child was not the man's biological son, although he had noticed that the child looked different from the rest of the family.

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He is my nephew. It is a sin before God. Whatever he has done, we cannot leave him on the street.

He said the 43-year-old also had another child in Germany with another woman and had no contact with that child. The uncle said he knew the children lacked essential documents and had pressed his nephew to register them, even accompanying him to a lawyer. The process was eventually abandoned.

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I knew the children did not have papers and I pressured him to go and register them.

The uncle said he had not known about the fourth child's pregnancy because his nephew avoided the family. He also said the man's mother had been sending money to support the other three children. “If he did not have his mother, he would have gone hungry. What will happen to the children?” he said.

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If he did not have his mother, he would have gone hungry. What will happen to the children?