Two young men have been arrested in Rethymno, Crete, for the assault of a 36-year-old French tourist. The victim has sustained serious head and face injuries.
The two arrestees belonged to a group of four young men in total who assaulted the French outside a bar in Rethymno in the early morning hours of Monday, September 2, 2024.
The Rethymno Single-Member Misdemeanor Court upgraded the charges from a misdemeanor to a felony, leading to the detention of two suspects on Wednesday. The other two young men of the group were detained and released but still face trial in the Mixed Jury Court. The trial date will be set by the Appeals Prosecutor of Crete.
The two released suspects claimed through their lawyer that their involvement was solely to prevent the incident.
All four defendants also presented video evidence suggesting that the French tourist and his group were involved in the altercation, with one of them allegedly holding a glass bottle.
The fight appears to have started when a group of Frenchmen came out of the bar, according to an employee, holding a bottle of alcohol. One of them seems to have pushed one of Cretan men and then one of the group grabbed the bottle, started hitting the 36-year-old with it, while another of the group of four Cretan kicked him in the ribs and punched him.
Video: Attention! Brutal content!
The victim remains hospitalized with a fractured head also on Thursday morning and he has reportedly escaped danger for his life.
It is the second brutal assault of tourists this summer, after a Greek-Canadian man was severely beaten by local men also outside a bar where he was with this family.
