Kalymnos: Investigation into claims police prevented rape victim from filing complaint

Police are expected to launch an internal investigation into the allegations of a 19-year-old student that police on the Dodecanese island of Kalymnos prevented her from making a complaint that she had been raped.

The woman successfully filed a complaint the next day against her alleged rapist at an Athens police station.

Civil Protection Minister Takis Theodorikakos has intervened in the case, with a request that the police’s internal affairs division investigate the allegations against their colleagues in Kalymnos.

According to Athens police sources, Kalymnos police deny that they prevented the woman from making a complaint. They said the woman appeared at the police station on April 14 and made a verbal allegation that she had been raped, naming a specific person. When police informed her that she would have to make a written statement, she asked to speak to her lawyer first, left the police station and did not return.

Equipped with a prosecutor’s order, the police brought the alleged rapist in for questioning but released him that night as the woman did not return to the station.

After the woman filed a complaint the next day in Athens, police were unable to locate the accused.

On May 4, the woman showed up again at Kalymnos police station, where she filed a complaint against the alleged rapist’s sister for assault, insults and threats.

The sister also filed a complaint against the 19-year-old woman for defamation and insults.

Police then arrested the alleged rape victim and the alleged rapist’s sister. [AMNA]