How could the rapist of a minor convicted to nine years in prison walk around free? This is the major question regarding the 37-year-old man who stabbed to death 11-year-old girl Vassiliki when she resisted to his attempt to rape her on Sunday.
The man was convicted to nine years imprisonment in 2020 for the rape of a 14-year-old girl in 2017. He did not serve any of his sentence but judges set him free until his appeal that was set for 2025.
Until then his sentance was suspended and he was allowed to walk free with restrictive conditions such as to stay away from his victim despite the fact that they both lived in a small settlement in Pyrgos area in southern Peloponnese.
How was this possible?
Yesterday, Tuesday, the Supreme Court President has ordered a probe into why the convicted rapist never served his jail sentence he was given four years ago for rape.
According to media reports, the man was arrested in 2017, arrested for the rape of a 14-year-old girl, also a relative of him as his murdered victim Vassiliki.
A case file was filed and it is suggested he was free on bail.
In his trial in 2020, he was unanimously sentenced by the Mixed Jury of Zakynthos to a nine-year prison sentence years.
The restrictive conditions imposed on him by the court of Zakynthos were a ban on leaving the country, an obligation to appear at the police station of his area – he lived in the prefecture of Ilia – and a ban on approaching the victim.
He was again released because the law allowed him to do so.
The three female judges made use of this possibility and did not look at the essence of the case, that is, that the man was possible dangerous to other minors.
The restrictive conditions imposed on him by the court of Zakynthos were a ban on leaving the country, an obligation to appear at the police station of his area – he lived in the prefecture of Ilia – and a ban on approaching the victim.
It is noted that the man did not even have a clean criminal record as he had irrevocable convictions for theft, bodily harm and violation of the weapons law between the years 2012-2015.
However, the three female judges decided to suspend his sentence until the Court of Appeal, setting him free.
The Court of Appeal was set for 2022 but it got adjournments because the convicted rapist did not have a lawyer.
a new date was set for February 2024 but this was adjourned again due to a lawyers’ strike.
The next date foe the appeal has been set for 2025.
According to the indictment, he boarded the 14-year-old victim on a motorcycle at night, dragged her to a deserted area, stopped, threw a stone on her head and then raped her.
Apart from all these legal gaps and possible omissions that will now be investigated, fact is that the members of the Roma community in the village and the broader area believed that he was cleared of the rape charges and that’s why he was walking free in the area.
Even his wife, a mother of four and pregnant on her 5th child, told media she believed he was not sentenced because he was not in jail but free.
probably more likely that it was the Politically Correct thing to not actually convict a ‘roma’ of a crime, of course the poor victims mean nothing to the political correctness machine… but if you think that it is more important to protect innocent children from monsters like this, than it is to avoid looking ‘racist’ then these days you must be far-right or something, eh?
these judges who turned him loose should share the responsibility for his repeat offense..
I know of immigrants in Thessaloniki who have served years in prison due to marijuana and MDMA. Yet, a child murderer and rapist goes free? When the justice system is random and mismatched, there is no justice. Even nine years, if it will ever be served, is too little, in my opinion. Murder charges are often for 15-20 years. I think the real travesty is that these children’s deaths are discounted because they were Roma. It’s sad.