Chez Cora founder testifies at trial of man accused of kidnapping her son

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While testifying Wednesday at the trial of the man accused of kidnapping one of his children, Cora Tsouflidou, founder of the Chez Cora restaurant chain, found herself answering tough questions about statements she made to police about her other son.

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Tsouflidou is the second witness to testify in the criminal trial of Paul Zaidan, 52, a Laval resident who owned a Chez Cora franchise on Nuns’ Island that failed months before Tsouflidou’s son, Nicholas Tsouflidis, the president of the chain, was kidnapped on March 8. , 2017.

Zaidan is also accused of trying to extort $ 11 million from Tsouflidou to free her son.

Tsouflidis was the first witness to testify and also had to answer many questions from the defense about his brother, Theoharis (Harry) Tsouflidis.

At one point in his testimony in the Laval court, Tsouflidou was asked to clarify whether his last name is Tsouflidis or Tsouflidou. She said they were both correct, but Judge François Dadour referred to her for the latter as the day progressed.

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On Wednesday, defense attorney Christopher Lerhe Mediati focused some of his questions on Tsouflidou in statements he made to police immediately after learning that Nicholas had been kidnapped.

“Did you tell the police that his (Theoharis’) behavior was strange?” asked the lawyer.

“Yes, I probably did,” Tsouflidou replied, while explaining that Theoharis didn’t react well to receiving much less than Nicholas and his daughter in a profit-sharing agreement paid before the kidnapping. He later explained that he had decided to give Theoharis less, “possibly $ 50,000”, compared to $ 200,000 to his other two children, because he had a drug problem. He had returned to Quebec, months before the kidnapping, after living in Greece for 15 years.

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“It was the first time I was confronted (about the profit sharing agreement),” Tsouflidou told the jury. “That might explain why I used the word ‘strange.’ “

She also confirmed that she told police she found it “strange” that Theoharis was not at the police station hours after the abduction, while she and her daughter were giving statements in an effort to help locate Nicholas. He was kidnapped from his home in Mirabel at night and was released the following afternoon. Last week, he told the jury that his kidnappers left him in a ditch in Laval after realizing that he had managed to call 911 from the trunk of the vehicle used in the kidnapping.

Later, Lerhe Mediati confronted Tsouflidou with a follow-up statement he gave to the police, on March 10, 2017, about the amount Theoharis received in the profit-sharing agreement.

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“At the time, did you mention that you forgot to mention (the day before) that Theoharis had received only $ 50,000 the week before (the kidnapping)?” Lerhe Mediati asked.

“I’m not sure I have a full head right now,” Tsouflidou said. “That’s why I don’t remember saying it. I was nervous.

“Maybe I did. I do not remember “.

While answering questions from a prosecutor, Tsouflidou recounted what she was told when she received a call from one of the kidnappers shortly after her son was kidnapped.

“It looked like something like this: ‘He will do exactly what we ask him to do. You must go to your son’s house. You will enter through the back door. It’s not closed, ‘”she said, adding that two police officers were already standing next to her inside her home at the time. They were investigating the 911 call that Nicholas Tsouflidis made from the trunk of the vehicle that he said he was forced into.

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A short time later, Tsouflidou said, he received a second call.

“It was very threatening, like something was about to happen. And above all, the person said that I should not communicate with the police, ”he said. She added that the two officers in her kitchen told her to get dressed so they could take her to a police station and get a statement from her.

Lerhe Mediati will continue his questioning of Tsouflidou on Thursday.

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