A woman was killed just after asking police for protection from an ex-partner. Greece is asking why

Greek authorities on Tuesday ordered an urgent investigation into a woman’s fatal stabbing outside an Athens police precinct where she had just requested protection from an ex-boyfriend.

The 28-year-old’s death triggered new calls by left-wing opposition parties for femicide – the killing of women or girls with a gender-related motivation – to be recognized as a distinct term in Greece’s criminal code.

The minister in charge of the police, Michalis Chrysochoidis, promised a “full, in-depth” investigation of Monday’s killing that occurred a few dozen yards (meters) from the Aghii Anargyri police station.

The woman’s 39-year-old former partner was arrested and was being treated under police guard in a psychiatric hospital after allegedly intentionally stabbing himself following the attack.

“What matters now is to fully investigate the incident … and see what the police did or didn’t do,” Chrysochoidis told state ERT television. “This must be done in a very few days, hours even.”

A police statement Tuesday said the victim visited the precinct with a friend and reported that her former boyfriend – against whom she had made formal complaints in the past for abusive behavior – had been loitering outside her home.

According to the statement, she requested a patrol car to take her home for her protection, but because she declined to make a formal complaint, she was directed to phone the police emergency line to send a vehicle.

The statement said she made the call on her way out of the precinct. But “while she was talking to a police operator she was suddenly attacked by her former partner, who fatally injured her with a knife.”

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou expressed shock at the killing. “The murder … yet another femicide, shakes and angers us,” she said in a statement. “It shows … the urgent responsibility authorities have to fight gender-based violence and crime.”

The police statement said members of the force are trained to respond to gender-based violence, following protocols “that are constantly updated.”

“It must be examined to what extent these [protocols] were followed,” Chrysochoidis said. He added that while he supported the criminal code reform requested by opposition parties, that should follow a “serious and calm debate” by legal experts.

The Athens stabbing was the sixth femicide reported in Greece this year. In 2023, 15 were reported.

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