Greek mother jailed pending trial over killing of young daughter

 A Greek prosecutor ruled on Monday that a 33-year-old mother accused of intentionally killing her 9-year-old daughter, in a case that has caused public outrage, will remain in custody pending trial, the Athens News agency reported.

The mother, who was arrested last week in the city of Patras in southern Greece and transferred to Athens to appear before a magistrate, has denied any wrongdoing.

Her daughter Georgina died in hospital and posthumous toxicology tests showed she had received ketamine, an anaesthetic drug often used in animal surgeries, that had not been prescribed by her treating doctors.

The family’s two other young girls had also died in mysterious circumstances in the last three years, prompting the homicides unit to investigate this case.

All three siblings died while being treated in hospital.

The cause of death of Georgina’s two other sisters remains unexplained and a prosecutor has launched an investigation into their deaths too.

Earlier on Monday, a group of people rallied outside the court, where the mother was transferred under tight security wearing a bulletproof vest underneath a black hooded jacket.

On the day of her arrest last week, dozens of people had protested outside her home in Patras and scribbled “death” with black paint on the building.