Dutch journalist Ingeborg Beugel, who was involved in a heated exchange with Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis who she accused of lying about Greece’s handling of migrants crossing the Aegean Sea during a press conference last week, told a Dutch media outlet that after the incident she would be leaving Greece as she felt threatened.

“I was advised to leave Greece as soon as possible,” the Dutch journalist said in an interview.

According to Beugel in her interview, after the publicity of the issue, she received threats for her life, describing an incident that happened to her. “I was returning home from a shop on a dark street when a man threw a stone at my head. He called me a Turkish prostitute and a spy for the Turks and told me to go to Erdogan. The stone tore my forehead. Then I ran very fast to go home. That was a shock. There is still a witch hunt online.”

Ingeborg Beugel says that she intended to travel to the Netherlands next week but her trip was postponed and that she herself has decided to leave Greece for an unknown period of time.

The Dutch website writes, however, that her intention is to return at some point: “They will probably want to make my life difficult. But my life is here and I have an important job to do here,” she added.

Beugel claims that she is not protected by the Greek authorities, but received support from journalistic organisations such as the Dutch NVJ. According to the interview, the Dutch journalists’ association contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the embassy.

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