Thessaloniki judicial council acquits man of rape charge
A council of judges acquitted a 27-year-old man who was accused of raping a 24-year-old woman in the early hours of the New Year, in a luxury hotel room in Thessaloniki, after spiking her drink.
The council accepted a 60-page report of the First Instance Prosecutor, Kyriaki Kliaba, who called for the man’s acquittal, stating that the testimony of the alleged victim “constitutes fiction and unabashed lies.”
The report said the evidence, including witness statements, did not support the version of the events presented by the alleged victim, Georgia Bika. The forensic and toxicology tests conducted in Thessaloniki and Bern, and the collected urine samples did not find any drugs or other substances, while the amount of alcohol detected was minimal.
“She made up a story with herself as the heroine victim, embellishing it each time with the most gross lies, in order to give more credibility to the description of the events, presenting herself as a victim of rape by the accused and not only,” Kliaba said.
The judges also ordered the woman to pay the 27-year-old’s legal expenses.
The woman had claimed that she attended a party at the invitation of a friend, which was attended by a number of businesspeople. After an hour and a half, she decided to leave but felt too unwell to drive home and decided to book a room in the hotel.
She said she remembered three men approaching her in an elevator but then passed out. The next morning, she awoke in a hotel room, in a state of undress, with men’s clothing in the room. She reported the rape to police on January 2.
