Hardalias ousts regional party member after controversial femicide comment
Attica Regional Governor Nikos Hardalias said on Thursday he had expelled a member of his political grouping after he appeared to partially blame a murder victim for her killing by her former partner.
“The public statement of Manolis Sfakianakis regarding the murder of the 28-year-old woman in Agioi Anargyroi is in no way consistent with my ethics, my principles and values nor with the way in which all representatives of the regional authority should operate,” Hardalias said in a statement.
Sfakianakis, who has previously served as head of the Greek Police’s electronic crime unit, said in a television lifestyle panel that the victim, Kyriaki Griva, had posted pictures of herself and her friends on social media, where she appeared happy.
“The crime was fueled by social media activity. The woman was happy, she was having fun, and she was showing it. The other guy was crazy, he was schizophrenic, he was a stalker,” he told the panel. “They are telling me to look at her social media. If she wrote what they say she wrote, unfortunately she was expressing what she felt. She was at peace. This peace, however, bothered someone.”
“Even if 100 people were at the police station, he would have killed her […] The crime was unavoidable,” he added.
The victim had visited her local police precinct with a friend on Monday night to seek protection from her former partner – against whom she had made formal complaints in the past for abusive behavior – after he saw him loitering outside her home. Unable to get any any help from the police, she was ambushed by the suspect as she exited the building.
