A 24-year-old woman was in the courtrooms of Volos with a collar and her face disfigured by the wild beating she received from her 50-year-old father because she converted to Islam.
The woman, who now works in a medical research laboratory at a university in Great Britain where she studied biomedicine, filed a complaint against her father for beating her.
"He beat me for 20 minutes with animalistic glee because he didn't want me to wear a headscarf," she testified in court as her father cried. The District Attorney, Ms. Papakosta, initially defending the self-evident right of every person to believe in whatever god they want.
The 50-year-old farmer was sentenced to three years in prison.
According to Gegonota, the young woman, who lived her whole life until she left for studies in a village in the district of the Municipality of Riga Feraios, appeared yesterday in the courtroom wearing a mask, which did not hide the disfigurement her face had suffered from the beating.
One of her eyes was not even visible due to the inflammation.
The history of the case
The victim had decided to spend a few days with her parents and her 13-year-old brother, returning from England, while as she said in her testimony, she had informed her parents by phone about her decision to convert to Islam.
According to the report of the local site, the young woman's parents had reacted strongly on the phone, they had warned her not to come to Greece, but when things calmed down she finally decided to come last Saturday to see them.
When her father saw her in a scarf when he went to pick her up from the bus station in Volos, he began the attack.
"You discredit us everywhere," he told her. She replied that he had the privilege of discrediting his family and herself for many years.
When they got home, the arguments did not stop, while on Sunday the family was waiting for relatives at home. The 25-year-old, wearing her headscarf, decided to stay in her room and her father was enraged.
He started punching her, knocking her down and kicking her in the ribs. When her mother stepped in to save her from his hands, he hit her too.
He is dangerous
"He told me that he was going to kill me first and then the child," stated the mother in her testimony, who went and asked for help from the neighbours.
"You have taken the path of the devil," the father shouted at his 24-year-old bloodied daughter, while he himself is an atheist, but observes the customs of the Christian community where he lives. The mother admitted that her husband is violent and beats her and the children.
The 24-year-old, who was born in a village in Velestino, was baptised a Christian. She testified that as soon as her father saw her at the bus station with the headscarf, he was ready to attack her.
"At home, he shouted that Muslims are sick and did not allow me to explain to him that it is my right to search, research religions and make decisions. I am anyway against the appearance of naked parts of the body," she said.
The victim also stated that many times she and her family have experienced outbursts of violence from the father, and as many times they have been afraid that he will carry out his threat - to kill them.
"He beat me mercilessly. He was not moved, he did not regret. I was calling for help and while he was beating me he had an animalistic joy in his eyes. I had promised myself that if he hit me again I would report him," she said.
While she was testifying, her father, who appeared without a lawyer, like the 24-year-old, declared remorse and apologized, while the 13-year-old child of the family watched the process.
"I consider my father dangerous," said the 24-year-old and she refused when the prosecutor proposed to her to accept a criminal mediation procedure.
The 50-year-old in his testimony hinted that he has been fighting for his children for so many years and struggles with little money to make ends meet, believing that everyone should obey his orders because he supports them.
"I won't touch a hair of their hair again, I won't hurt a fly," he said apologetically, with the Prosecutor telling him that he should have been in the defendant's position many years ago.
“Go back and see your daughter, you could have killed her. Because you give them, as you think, a plate of food, are you going to make their lives a torture?” said the Prosecutor addressing the defendant.
She described him as a violent man, without moral barriers and without love for his family.
The Prosecutor and the two courts of the seat sentenced him to three years and three months without suspension and without the appeal having a suspensory effect. The 50-year-old was crying and apologising until the police took him to the detention center to be transferred to prison.
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