Supreme Court upholds acquittal of rape suspect

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an appeal against a decision by a lower court clearing a 27-year-old man of charges of rape.

The appeal was brought before the Supreme Court by a 24-year-old woman who claims that the man raped her during New Year’s festivities at a hotel in the northern port city of Thessaloniki at the start of the year.

He was acquitted chiefly on the grounds of insufficient forensic evidence to back the young woman’s claim that she was plied with alcohol and subdued with some kind of so-called “date-rape” drug.

In an extensive report, the deputy prosecutor who handled the appeal listed the merits of the lower court’s decision to clear the 27-year-old of rape charges, saying it was the “right verdict.”

Some local media reported that the young woman now plans to take her case to the European Court.