The Chairman and founder of Mamidoil-Jetoil, an oil company that is active in Greece and the Balkans and operates about 600 gas stations, was found dead in his Athens home on Sunday.
According to police investigators and a medical examiner’s report, 84-year-old Kyriakos Mamidakis was not the victim of foul play but that he had committed suicide.
As yet there are no explanations for what might have led Mamidakis to this fateful decision, however it was noted that he had filed for bankruptcy on June 9, declaring that it owed creditors 314 million euros ($350 million) at the end of 2015, while having cash reserves of 600,000 ($668,000).
It must be noted that since the financial crisis took hold of Greece, the country has experienced an unprecedented increase in suicide rates, a social phenomenon which was not as common to the culture of Greece.
The mean suicide rate* overall rose by 35% between 2010 and 2012, from 3.37 to 4.56/100 000 population. The suicide mortality rate for men increased from 5.75 (2003–2010) to 7.43/100 000 (2011–2012; p<0.01). Among women, the suicide rate also rose, albeit less markedly, from 1.17 to 1.55 (p=0.03). When differentiated by age group, suicide mortality increased among both sexes in the age groups 20–59 and >60 years. We found that each additional percentage point of unemployment was associated with a 0.19/100 000 population rise in suicides (95% CI 0.11 to 0.26) among working age men.
*Source: bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/3/e007295.abstract
