Thousands of mourners gathered Sunday evening at the Holy Trinity Church in the Athens suburb of Nikea to pay tribute to Giorgos Mazonakis, the popular Greek singer who died Wednesday at age 54, with the crowd at times breaking into song, singing some of Mr. Mazonakis's best-known hits.
Mr. Mazonakis's casket lay in honor at the church in Nikea, the neighborhood where he was born, a day ahead of his burial at Athens' Third Cemetery.
The family has asked that only relatives and close friends attend Monday's funeral, and requested donations to the humanitarian aid group Humanity Greece in lieu of flowers.
Mr. Mazonakis died shortly after going into cardiac arrest during a plasmapheresis procedure, in which blood plasma is removed, filtered of toxins and reinfused.
While the procedure is sometimes used to treat serious diseases, it is also marketed to healthy patients seeking anti-aging and longevity benefits — a controversial use of the treatment.
The private Athens clinic where Mr. Mazonakis underwent the procedure advertised anti-aging services but was not licensed to perform plasmapheresis, which is legally restricted to fully equipped hospitals.
Two doctors connected to the clinic have since been arrested and charged with fatal exposure over Mr. Mazonakis's death, as investigators examine contradictions in one doctor's account of the timeline and awaited toxicology results following last week's autopsy.
In response to the case, Greece's Health Ministry announced plans to establish a regulatory framework governing longevity, rejuvenation and anti-aging services, an industry that has so far operated with limited oversight.