The public prosecutor in Thessaloniki is investigating the horrific case of a young woman who was allegedly drugged and raped in the suite of a luxury hotel in Thessaloniki during a New Year’s Eve party. The 24-year-old victim of a gang rape has recognized at least two suspects while she accused a total of three men. One of them, a 27-year-old man, admitted to authorities that he had sex with the woman claiming, however, that she had given her consent. The man, who happens to be offspring of a very well-known business family, was arrested and released with restrictive conditions. Then the hell broke out on social media with the case to be trending over several days thus pushing authorities to keep on digging into the case and forcing mainstream media to report on the issue which they had originally ignored.
The victim reported her rape to police on January 2, her lawyer told several media.
She was invited to the party by the organizer, a friend of hers. At some point, she fell unwell and unable to find her car, so she booked a room to spend the night at the hotel as she home was outside the city. Heading to her room, she met the three men the corridor, who offered to help her. The next morning, she found herself on a bed without underwear in a room with men’s cloths and a suitcase. She then realized what happened to her. She called her lawyer and he advised her to report the incident to police, media report citing her lawyer.
“The men lured her to the suite,” the lawyer told Skai TV and other media.
The young woman could not initially identify the perpetrators as she was not aware of their identities. However, one of the three businessmen made the mistake to call her the next day with the result that the police proceeded to locate and arrest hi, local media thesstoday reported.
According to the victim’s testimonies to Police and investigative authorities, she reported three persons as her rapists. In her third testimony to authorities, she reportedly recognized also a second person.
Posts on social media claim that at least two of gang rape perpetrators are offspring of a powerful business family, while the third one was employee at a famous cafeteria in the city of Thessaloniki. At least three names have been made public by Greek internet users.
While the results of the toxicological tests are expected to determine whether the victim was given drugs, investigation in the hotel suite has discovered the room key to the victim’s room as well as a pill for the improvement of erectile dysfunction, media report on Monday.
It should be noted that the party organizer and victim’s friend had allegedly posted on social media sometime last week on the incident saying that he was “sorry” for what had happened. On Monday, the man claimed that he was beaten beginning of the month, that his mobile was taken with force days later and thus the “fake” post on his social media account. Τhe post was mentioning among others that they had invited “beautiful girls” so that their guests, businessmen from Athens, would have “a nice time.”
Based on the testimonies included in the rape case file, the prosecutor ordered Police to investigate whether the crime of pimping was also committed, reports state news agency amna
According to testimonies, other girls who were promoted to prostitution allegedly participated in the party as well.
Prosecuting authorities will reportedly investigate whether the people who participated in the specific party aimed to look for young women, who were forced into prostitution by channeling them into such parties.
This is a separate case file, notes local thesstoday.
Skai TV reported that the rape victim was not one of these girls.*
The 24-year-old victim told media through her lawyer that she is grateful for the huge people’s support that helps her overcome the trauma. She is determined to bring the perpetrators to justice and stresses that “the wave of love she receives helps her to stand on her feet again.”
The mayor of the municipality where the victim lives said that they will offer her any support and social services she may need as she has lost both her parents some time ago.
On social media the outrage continues also on Monday, a few days after the gang rape case became known, to be trending and there are allegations of “efforts to cover up” as the perpetrators are offspring of well-known families in the country. Sadly, but also not unexpected, there are also efforts to blame the victim of the gang rape.
“What did a girl do in a hotel?” posted a former EU Commissioner for Youth issues from Cyprus. The woman was verbally attacked for her post which she later deleted and apologized claiming she was misunderstood.
Next to old-fashioned approach that women, especially young one should better stay at home, also some Greek TV personas and so-called “influencers” on instagram have been posting in the direction of victim blaming. And Yes, the majority of them are women, and yes, some of them may have professional interests to promote attitudes like this one.
*as if this would make a difference, as rape is rape no matter if the victim is a saint or a prostitute.
There are always people who but the blame on the woman: she should not have worn a short skirt, not have been in that place etc etc! WHEN will these people see that it is the male/males that have commited a crime against the womans will???? Howcome some males think that a womans body is their “toy” to do what they want with? I wish these ugly types was raped themselves! Then they would maybe learn something.