A man who locked his mother-in-law in the basement of his apartment building in order to take revenge on her was sentenced to nine months in prison by the Thessaloniki Single-Member Plenary Court.
The court found the accused guilty of unlawful detention and threatening, and decided that his sentence should be suspended.
According to the woman’s complaint, the unbelievable incident occurred last Friday, when she went down to the basement – garage from the second floor apartment where she lives, as she uses this space as a utility room of her house.
“I took a look at the first floor where my brother-in-law lives and then I used my key to open the basement door and went inside. After a while, I heard the door lock and my brother-in-law shouting ‘you’re going to die in here’ and ‘now you’ll see what happens to you’.
Seconds later I noticed him forcefully closing the door of his apartment and I knew he was on edge,” he told the judges.
When asked about her son-in-law’s motive, the woman explained that their relationship is particularly strained for family reasons related to their daughter and the defendant’s wife.
The couple, she said, live on the first floor and she and her husband on the second floor, resulting in friction on a daily basis.
“For 20 minutes I was banging on the basement door and shouting loudly. I was very scared. Luckily my husband sought me out because I was away from home for a while and he heard my shouting,” she added.
The woman’s husband, who testified as a witness in court, said that “my son-in-law has been staying alone for the past few days as our daughter, along with their child, is staying at our house because they have frequent fights that he causes.
I noticed that my wife was late coming up to the house and as soon as I opened the door of the apartment I heard shouting. She was banging loudly on the wooden door of the basement.
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As soon as I opened it she told me that our son-in-law locked her in and took the keys.”
The witness also said that his wife, who is facing health problems, was pale, in a panic state and in order to sleep she had to take medication prescribed by the cardiologist after the agitation she spent locked in the basement. “We thought she was going to be left in our hands,” she said.
It is noted that the accused did not attend court and was represented by a proxy lawyer, through whom he denied the acts attributed to him, claiming that it was a false complaint by their mother-in-law.
