Lesvos mayor reacts to reports of hate crimes

In the wake of reports on Thursday that a 9-year-old girl was assaulted on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos by four men who mistook her for a Muslim because she was wearing a head scarf, Mayor Spyros Galinos has asked a local prosecutor to investigate the claim and other similar instances of discrimination.

In his request to the prosecutor’s office, he called for the prosecution of those who spread “fake news, racism, fear and panic over social media” and encourage people to take the law into their own hands.

Galinos said he is “obliged to protect the local community and its social cohesion.”

He also referred to other acts of hate, including the vandalism earlier in the week of a monument erected on the island to commemorate hundreds of migrants and refugees who have perished while attempting the crossing from Turkey to Greece and the European Union.