2012 Paros beating and rape

The 2012 Paros beating and rape of a teenage girl by an illegal immigrant named Waqas Ahmed (alternate names reported including Ahmed Waqas, Ahmet Vaka, Ahmet Bakas, and Ahmet Vakash)^[1] attracted widespread attention. Perpetrated on the island of Paros, Greece, the case became notorious at a time of rising concern about the increasing numbers of illegal immigrants arriving in the country. Injuries to the victim, usually referred to in the Greek press solely by her first name "Myrto" (Greek: Μυρτώ), resulted in permanent disability.^[2]

The event

On 23 July 2012 a teenage girl, Myrto Papadomichelaki (Greek: Μυρτώ Παπαδομιχελάκη), was found half naked, beaten and in a coma, on one of the most popular beaches in the Greek island, Paros.^[3] Her head had been bashed in with a rock weighing 5 kilos.^[4] The authorities ordered the girl to be transferred to a hospital in Athens so that she would have the best of care and started looking for evidence in the crime scene in order to find the assaulter.^[5][6] At first, police investigated the incident as an accident. However, when the forensic specialist from Athens, Dr. Nikos Kalogrias announced that he had found semen over the girl’s body, the focus of the investigation changed to rape and near-fatal beating.^[5][7]

Suspects

According to the police report, initially the suspects were 12 men, Greeks and foreigners, who either worked by the beach and the crime scene or had been seen by witnesses in the area. As the investigation continued, the suspects were narrowed to four and police concluded, with the help of several eyewitnesses, that the suspect was a man who worked by the crime scene.^[8] Specifically the mother of the teenage girl reported that she saw a man, wearing white trousers and a colorful shirt, walking away from the crime scene. Waqas Ahmed's co-workers said that he was wearing this kind of clothes at work the day of the incident. However, Ahmed had already left the island to go to Athens, ostensibly because of the serious illness of one of his relatives.^[8] Ahmed was picked up during a random check in Athens and DNA was used to identify him as the likely culprit.^[9] A gardener, Ahmed had told his Paros employers that he had to leave the island to visit an ailing family member.^[10][11]

Perpetrator

A few days later the police arrested a Pakistani illegal immigrant, Waqas Ahmed, in Nea Chalkidona, Athens, along with two other illegal immigrants. Police located suspect through his mobile phone and with the help of other immigrants.^[12] The police compared DNA obtained from Ahmed's saliva with DNA that found on the girl's clothes and body and confirmed a match, after which Ahmed confessed his crime.^[12] Waqas Ahmed, was reportedly calm and emotionless while describing the events of the crime to the police officers. As he stated, his first intention was to steal the girl's mobile phone but she tried to repel his attack. Then, he started beating her with a rock until she fell unconscious. While the girl could not fight anymore he raped her and then beat her again against the stones.^[12][13]

The perpetrator had been scheduled for voluntary repatriation to Pakistan at the time of the arrest.^[14]

Social reaction

After his confession, Waqas Ahmed was taken to the island of Syros where he testified again before the district prosecutor. While the police accompanied him from the ferry to the prosecutor's office, passersby shouted slogans against him. Supporters of the Greek nationalist party, Golden Dawn were in the angry crowd shouting denunciations of the rapist.^[15] The political demonstrations that surrounded the transportation and trial of the perpetrator had a significant impact. Police, in fear of any reprisal actions, started an operation of localization of any illegal immigrants in down town Athens having as a goal the "cleaning" of the capital's center and the deportation of all illegals. Minister of Citizen Protection, Nikos Dendias, stated that "the detention and deportation will continue until the center of Athens is "clean"", did not please the nationalist party, Golden Dawn which published the following announcement:

Enough with illegal immigrants! The horrible crime against a minor Greek was committed again by an illegal immigrant. The need for multiple deterrence measures is immediate. Any crime committed by an illegal alien must be statutory. Whoever talks about racism, should host the criminals at his home. The only racism that exists, is the racism against the Greeks.^[12]

As suspect was being transported from Syros to the port of Piraeus, near Athens, members of Golden Dawn, angered not only by the rape and attempted murder, but by the fact that the culprit appeared to have lied about his age to secure trial in the juvenile justice system, attempted to pull him from the police car in which he was being transported, allegedly in order to lynch him.^[16][17]

After the initial trial, the perpetrator was discovered to have lied about his age in order to be tried and punished as a juvenile.^[18]

Trial

The defendant, an illegal immigrant, initially convinced authorities that he was a minor so that he could be adjudicated by a juvenile court. He first reported that he was born in 1991, then in 1993 and finally he stated that he was born in 1995. His inconsistency made the investigator ask the prosecutor to add those false statements to the prosecution. However Ahmed did not change his attitude and continued lying, as a result, the court's initial judgement was for him to be held in prison for two years.^[19]

The trial was a national news story in Greece.^[20] Perpetrator was sentenced to, "a life sentence for the robbery, 18 years in jail for the attempted homicide, 18 years in jail for the rape and three months in jail for illegal employment".^[3][21][22]

An item in the online magazine ΠΑΡΑΔΡΑΣΗ condemned "treacherous and anti-Greek Leftwing" demonstrators who gathered outside the courthouse to protest on behalf of the rights of illegal immigrants.^[23] The courtroom, holding cell, court offices, courthouse and vehicles transporting the confessed rapist had to be tightly guarded throughout the legal proceedings.^[23]

Crowds gathered outside the courthouse at ever stage in the trial, to protest against illegal immigration,^[24] to defend the rights of illegal immigrants,^[23] and, finally, to show solidarity with the family on the day the sentence was read.^[21][25]

Victim

Tens of thousands of dollars were raised by the Greek public to pay for the victim's medical care.^[26]

The teenage girl is now out of the coma and she is trying to regain her strength and abilities in a rehabilitation center.^[19][27][28] Three years after the attack, she continues to be unable to walk or to feed herself.^[2]

Andreas Lykourentzos, Greek Minister for Health, announced on May 2013 that the victim would be transferred to a hospital in the United States to undergo advanced treatment at the expense of the Greek government.^[29] A decision continued by Greek Minister for Health, Adonis Georgiadis.^[30] Nevertheless, private funds were required and the money was raised by the Greek-American community in the United States to fund Myrto Papadomichelaki's treatment at Harvard's Children's and Spaulding Hospitals in Boston.^{[31][32][33][34]}

Impact

In the immediate aftermath of the rape, Nikos Dendias, Minister for Civil Protection, announced a program to detain and deport illegal immigrants from central Athens.^[35][36] Hundreds of illegal immigrants including dozens of Pakistanis were immediately rounded up and deported from Athens.^[17][37]

The attack and rape of a 15-year-old Greek girl by an illegal immigrant is considered to have "played into" the (Golden Dawn) party’s hands.^[27][36][38]

Anger over this rape and "attempted murder" is said to have stoked a wave of assaults on foreigners, including the incident in which Iraq Aladin, an illegal immigrant from Iraq was stabbed and beaten to death by five masked hoodlums on Aug. 12, 2012.^[36][39] Anti-immigration parties in other European countries publicized the incident as a rallying point, including the British National Party.^[40]

See also

• Crime in Greece

References