Greek Police arrested another eight men over the last two days involved in the rape of the 12-year-old girl in Colonos that was pimped by a neighbor.
Seven men, 2 Greeks and 5 foreign nationals aged 20 to 52, were arrested on Thursday and were brought to prosecutor on Friday.
One more arrest took place on Friday morning.
Among the arrested suspects are a 48-year-old Greek man and his 20-year-old son who reportedly raped the girl more than once.
The other suspects are two Pakistanis aged 52 and 36, three Bangladeshis aged 48, 44 and 28 and a 47-year-old Albanian national, who had pornographic material with the girl in his possession.
The majority of the rapists were living or run small businesses in a radius of one km from the girl’s home, Mega TV reported on Friday afternoon..
The men and the girl had met in their own cars.
The number of arrestees rose to 30, including the child’s mother, whose role in the pimping is still unclear, nine months after the case became public in October 2022 and resulted in the arrest of the 53-year-old local market owner who raped and forced the girl into prostitution since the spring 2022.
As the arrestees were taken to prosecutor on Friday, one of them reportedly took his tongue out to mock awaiting reporters.
The latest arrests on Thursday and Friday followed an additional testimony by the victim before Easter.
“More arrests are coming”
According to the lawyer of the victims mother, Apostolos Lytra, the number of arrests is expected to increase.
It is recalled that the girl’s nightmare was revealed in October 2022, when it became known that the 53-year-old H.M., who ran a shop in Colonos, raped and pimped her.
The rapists were interested in the photos of the 12-year-old posted by the 53-year-old, who even took her to a brothel.
Of the total of 29 arrested, 21 were remanded in custody as they did not convince the investigator handling the case, one has been released with restrictive conditions and the 7 newly arrested will be taken to the investigator who will decide their fate.
In her last statement, the little girl gave the first names of some of the arrested, while for some others she even handed over their mobile phone numbers”, a security police officer on newspaper ethnos.gr.
“This is a case that needs very delicate handling because the child’s psychology is very fragile, while new evidence is constantly emerging from the analysis of the online applications that H. M. used on the mobile phones and computers that have confiscated,” the police officer said.
“Investigation will go deep and all those who abused the child will be brought to justice,” he added.
According to initial media information last October, the girl was forced to sexual intercourse with over 200 men.
