Officers charged with raping woman at Athens police station

Two police officers of the DIAS motorcycle squad were charged with raping a 19-year-old woman in Omonia police station in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The two men, aged 24 and 27, were arrested by the police’s internal affairs unit on Friday morning who is leading the investigation. 

Both suspects reject the charge, claiming that the sex was consensual. They are expected to testify before an investigative magistrate. 

According to sources, the young woman encountered the police officers near the ISAP train station in Thisio, central Athens, where they asked her to meet them at the Omonia police station at 11.30 p.m. The woman arrived at the station and followed three of the four who were on duty inside. It was not clear why they asked her to come to the police station or what they discussed.

When she asked to go to the bathroom, she was taken to the basement, near the officers’ changing room, where she was sexually assaulted by the alleged offenders. The 19-year-old left the police station in shock and confided what had happened to a friend. 

The next morning she visited a doctor who examined her and urged her to report the incident to the police. The woman filed a complaint with the police station in Patission and subsequently gave a statement to the police.

Investigators found that the police station’s security camera had been disabled, but footage from another camera in a nearby hotel confirms the victim’s entry and exit from the police station. They also found and confiscated one of the alleged perpetrators’ body camera in a closet.

The public prosecutor’s office is examining whether to charge the other two officers who were on duty, who reiterated the claims of the accused.