The murder of a 28-year woman has sent shockwaves across the country, sparking sweeping public debate over rising rates of domestic abuse and lingering flaws within Greece’s police operation.
She was stabbed to death outside a central police station in the Athens suburb of Agioi Anargiroi, shortly after seeking police protection from her harassing ex-partner.
In a rare intervention, President Katerina Sakellaropoulou called for zero-tolerance in gender-based violence, pressing authorities to take greater action to tackle rising rates of femicide.
“The case,” Ms. Sakellaropoulou said, “has shocked and angered us all.”
“It exposes one of the darkest and most sorrowful aspects of our society in the harshest and most painful manner, “ she added.
“ It also underscores the pressing responsibility which the state has to combat gender-based violence and crime.”
Authorities said the victim had reported her ex-partner for rape and assault in 2020, ending a turbulent relationship. It remains unclear whether the victim continued to harass her.
But on Monday night, according to the victim’s testimony, the assailant re-emerged, ambushing the woman outside the Agioi Anargiroi police station as she placed a call with an emergency hotline, pleading for help as her knife-wielding ex-boyfriend moved to attack her.
The attack was overheard by Greece’s 911 operator – a chilling recording picked up and broadcast by local media, leaving a nation in shock and horror.
“It is one of the most abhorrent and violent crimes I have ever faced,” Public Order Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis told a local broadcaster, acknowledging a series of police lapses in the case.
“There are a series of actions that need to be taken,” he said, hours after a state prosecutor launched an urgent investigation into the causes of the grisly murder and revelations by iefimerida that one of the two acting duty officers at the Agioi Anargiroi police station had been previously convicted and jailed in connection with human trafficking and forgery charges in 2021.
“It is obvious,” Chrysochoidis said, “that a lot of things went wrong in the course of that fateful night,” when the young woman was murdered.
The assailant, hospitalized for trying to slay himself in the neck after the attack, has been charged with premeditated murder and other related offenses, including illegal possession of arms and narcotics.
He remains under police custody, treated at a state psychiatric facility. Authorities meantime are probing potential lapses in police conduct and circumstances that led to the young woman’s murder.
Since 2020, rising cases of domestic abuse have given rise to 18 special police offices set up to offer support to victims. Authorities contacted on Tuesday said plans include the creation of some 30 more. They refused to elaborate.
In all, 202 women have been murdered in femicide cases reported between 2019 and 2023, according to official data.
Security footage reveals the harrowing moments leading to 28-year-old woman's fatal stabbing by her 39-year-old assailant.