Thessaloniki: police statement on incident

Shortly after midnight on Wednesday, August 19, a bloody incident occurred in an apartment in the Saranta Ekklisies area of Thessaloniki. According to initial reports, as covered by “TA NEA”, neighbours who heard shouting saw a 31-year-old man holding a knife and tried to talk him down, while police were alerted. Officers who arrived at the scene, according to the same reports, had to use a tourniquet to stop a woman’s bleeding; she was then taken with serious injuries to Gennimatas Hospital. The earliest reports gave the injured woman’s age as 24. The subsequent Hellenic Police statement gives it as 25, a discrepancy that has not been further clarified by either side. From this point on, the age given in the official police statement is used, as it is the most recent official figure.

The Hellenic Police statement gives a different picture of what preceded the injury than the initial reports, which described the incident as a knife attack on the woman. In its text, the police state that “the police investigation found that, following an online acquaintance, the 25-year-old went to the 31-year-old’s home, where, during her stay, she was seen examining a watch belonging to him with the intent of taking it.” This is the version of the preliminary investigating authority, which attributes a different context to the incident and led to the arrest of both individuals. Both accounts remain claims: one comes from the initial coverage of the incident and the other from the police investigation, neither has been confirmed judicially, and the final determination of the facts belongs to the court.

The 31-year-old man is being brought before the judicial authorities, while the 25-year-old woman is hospitalised under guard. The procedure followed in such cases is the in-flagrante one: police compile a case file, which they forward to the competent prosecutor, and the arrested person is brought before them to be formally charged. The prosecutor may bring criminal charges and refer the case to court, request a deadline, or order further investigation. When a person is hospitalised, they are brought in after discharge or, if their condition allows, through a special procedure. Until a final, irrevocable ruling is issued, the presumption of innocence applies to each of the two, regardless of the content of police statements or reports that preceded it.

It has not been announced exactly which charges were brought against each of the two, nor when they will be brought before the prosecutor. It has also not been disclosed how the woman’s health has progressed since her hospital admission, and there is no public information on whether statements have been taken from the neighbours who called the police. Additional evidence, such as forensic and crime-scene findings, is part of the case file and is not made public at this stage. The Hellenic Police has not released identifying details of the two individuals, as provided for in cases at an initial stage. The case will be decided by the courts, as with other violence cases in Thessaloniki that have recently reached trial, among them sentences imposed for the beating of a shop employee. Further official updates are expected from the Hellenic Police and the prosecuting authorities.