The Athens Misdemeanor Court acquitted the former Olympiacos footballer, Rúben Semedo, of rape charges following a complaint made by a 17-year-old girl in August 2021.
From the evaluation of the evidentiary material gathered during the preliminary investigation and then the main investigation, the witness statements, the testimonies of the accused and psychological expertise, many interesting details emerged.
The two underage girls never revealed their age to the defendants, falsely stating that they were adults, a fact that was confirmed by the second minor in her testimony to police officers of the Juvenile Protection Department of Attica.
The plaintiff did have sexual intercourse with the second defendant at her request and with her consent, while no evidence showed that the second defendant (the football player’s friend) used physical violence to break her resistance and force her into intercourse against her will.
Her willingness to engage in sexual intercourse was confirmed to be without coercion through physical violence or the threat of serious and immediate danger to life.
It was confirmed by the 17-year-old’s own friend, who was in the next bedroom, that “we didn’t hear anything” despite claims by the alleged rape victim that she was shouting and calling for help.
The victim herself, when asked by the expert psychological police deputy director of the Department of Juvenile Protection if anything had happened before they went to the home of the first accused, namely Semedos, she answered: “Eh, nothing.”
“We danced, drank and had a great time and me and my girlfriend had a great time. Nor did anyone make me feel uncomfortable or scared or anything like that,” the minor said.
And then she testified, “[He] basically woke me up and he started bothering me and I was telling him ‘no no no’ and he basically raped me and I kept telling him ‘no no’ leave me it was clear I didn’t want to.”
In the submitted documents, it is pointed out that the victim herself never mentioned that the second defendant forced her to have intercourse by using physical violence, nor that he used physical force against her to break her resistance and force her to have intercourse.
It further emerged that the minor also had sexual intercourse with Semedos, at her request, knowing that her friend was outside the bedroom inside the defendant’s house.
From no element of the case file did it appear that Semedos used physical violence to break the victim’s resistance and force her since she never expressed a contrary will, nor did she call her friend for help even knowing that the latter was in an adjacent bedroom.
Her claim that she could not resist due to the consumption of alcoholic beverages is not true and is not confirmed even by the toxicological examination report, according to which no alcohol or any other narcotic substance was detected in her urine.
It should be noted that after the incident, on Saturday afternoon, the patient’s friend sent a message to the first defendant, Semedos, asking him to go for a walk with the patient to Allou Fun Park.
The Extortion
Reinforcing the judgment that intercourse with both defendants took place at the request and consent of the victim is the fact that on August 30, 2021 her boyfriend, after telling him about the sex she had with the Portuguese player, sent message on Semedo ‘s mobile phone with threatening message.
“You had sex with my sixteen year old sister good luck in prison or give me €15,000 and I won’t say anything,” the message said.
The message in question was sent at 21:57 on August 29, 2021 and an hour later Semedo was arrested.
So it seems that they intended to extract a sum of money from the footballer knowing that he was then playing with the Olympiacos team.
Read the relevant passages from the exculpatory will
Based on these incidents, there are no serious indications to publicly support the accusation against Semedos and his friend in the relevant charge for the criminal act of rape.
The lawyer’s statement:
“From the first moment I assumed the defence of Semedo, I stated that there was no evidence to substantiate the charges against him,” the Portuguese footballer’s lawyer, Marizanna Kikiri, told Proto Thema.
“On the contrary, all the evidence led to his acquittal,” the lawyer continued, adding: “Something that was done with the exculpatory will of the Council of Criminal Courts of Athens. His discharge was a one-way street.”
READ MORE: Marcelo’s wife Clarice Alves at the Acropolis with her son.
