A 37-year-old woman, another victim of femicide, was killed by her husband in western Greece’s Amphilochia town in the early hours of Saturday, July 13th.
According to the local e-maistros website based in western Greece, the perpetrator was a 42-year-old man who had been separated from the victim. Following the murder, the perpetrator allegedly committed suicide.
Media reports from the town suggest that the incident unfolded in the early hours of Saturday at around 4:00 AM local time. The 42-year old man allegedly jumped off the balcony of their apartment that was on the first floor of an apartment block in the town of Amphilochia. He then landed on the car of the victim who had just parked and started shooting with a gun.
The same media reports suggest that the couple, who had two children, had been facing marital problems for years. Hence, they had decided to separate. The alleged perpetrator of the murder had been arrested in May, as the victim had filed a lawsuit, accusing him of domestic violence. The 42-year-old man, however, was not charged and was free to return to his house. Local police authorities are now trying to collect valuable information to figure out what exactly unfolded and how this tragedy happened.
Femicides a major concern for Greece
This new shocking incident comes only weeks after another femicide that took place in the Athenian suburb of Menidi.
On May 16th, the body of a 40-year-old woman was found in the middle of the street at the junction of Parnithos and Aristotelous streets in Menidi.
Before her murder, the 40-year-old victim had already filed three complaints of domestic violence against her former husband, and authorities were looking for him. The first complaint was made in April 2013, the second in September 2022, and the third on May 7th of this year at the police station of Peristeri.
Following her last complaint, her ex-husband was arrested and charged with domestic abuse. He was due in court only days after the murder.
Following a series of femicides, Greece introduced the panic button in 2022. This is a digital application that allows individuals to alert the authorities for help.
The panic button sends a short text message to police authorities in instances in which family violence is associated with a threat or danger to life and physical integrity. The purpose is immediate intervention by the police force, which has to act straight away and do its best to protect the user of the app.
Automatically, the phone is connected through the special application to the center of the service which will receive the calls (whether it is the police or some other special service, like medical emergency professionals). They then detect the caller’s precise location through the cell phone’s GPS so that the dispatch team can locate the victim quickly.
