Around 200 young people demonstrated on Friday in front of a police station in the suburbs of Athens, where a young woman was stabbed to death by her ex-partner, while the police are accused of failings in this new feminicide in Greece.
These students from a school in this popular suburb in the northwest of the capital gathered seated in front of the building, and unfurled a banner reading “No woman is alone”. Bouquets of white flowers and candles were also left in front of the entrance to the police station in Agioi Anargyroi.
Another gathering, after several demonstrations in recent days, is to be held at the end of the day in the same place. Near the scene of the crime, protest graffiti appeared, stating in part: “The patriarchy rapes and kills.”
Police failures?
Kyriaki Griva, 28, was stabbed several times on Monday evening by her 39-year-old ex-partner when she had just left the police station where she had gone feeling threatened by this man.
Many accuse the police of not having protected the victim from her ex-partner, whose violence she had already denounced, despite her pleas. She was stabbed while on the phone to the police emergency call center requesting a police escort to her home. According to the media, which published the telephone conversation, the operator of this center replied: “The police vehicle is not a taxi.”
The suspected murderer was committed to the psychiatric ward of a prison and five officers, including the head of the police station, were suspended.
Fifth femicide
This femicide, the fifth since the start of the year in Greece, has sparked numerous political reactions.
Also read Authors, victims, modus operandi… A year of feminicides scrutinized
The case “does not reflect the general image of the Greek police,” argued government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis on public channel ERT. It “does not mean that the government has done nothing over the last five years” in the face of domestic violence in Greece, he added.
According to the latest report of the group of independent experts responsible for the implementation of the Istanbul Convention (Grevio) on violence against women, numerous shortcomings persist in Greece, notably "in the coordination of responses to the needs of women victims of violence.” Grevio is also concerned about “low conviction rates, particularly in cases of rape”.