NEWS

US wants to take over case of Hania assault

The US military is trying to take over the case of an American air force officer who allegedly invaded an elderly Cretan woman’s flat while drunk early last month and beat her up, a report said on Saturday. The January 4 incident was considered serious enough for the US ambassador to Athens, Thomas Miller, to apologize in person to the victim, 76-year-old Maria Dretoulaki, in her Hania home during a visit to Crete on January 14. «We are trying to get US jurisdiction,» US Air Forces Europe spokesman Major Scott Vadnais was quoted by Saturday’s Stars and Stripes – a US military daily – as saying. «Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, we can take actions that the Greek government can’t. These would be limited to some kind of assault, while we could use conduct unbecoming [an officer].» The 24-year-old captain is now at the Moody air force base in Georgia.

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