Two police officers have been found guilty by majority vote of raping a 19-year-old woman inside the Omonia Police Station, central Athens, the Athens Mixed Jury Court ruled on Thursday. The court, which tries serious felony cases in Greece before a panel of judges and lay jurors, reclassified the original charge from gang rape to rape by two or more persons without consent.

One of the two convicted police officers was also unanimously found guilty of a personal data violation, having allegedly filmed the assault. A third defendant, accused of aiding and abetting the rape, was acquitted by majority vote. The court is expected to announce sentences for the two convicted officers later today.

The verdict came despite the presiding prosecutor’s closing argument last Wednesday, in which he had requested the acquittal of the two officers on the rape charge, arguing that the evidence did not establish with certainty that the complainant had not consented.

“The defendants’ conduct is reprehensible and highly unprofessional, but we are not a court of moral judgment here,” the prosecutor told the court, stressing that criminal liability must rest solely on the evidence rather than a moral assessment of the men’s behaviour. He argued that the case file left open the possibility of consensual intercourse that the young woman may have later regretted.

During their testimony, the first two defendants denied the rape charge, describing the encounter as consensual and calling their actions a “mistake” made out of “carelessness,” which they said they had regretted the same day.

The third defendant, their superior, said he could never have imagined his subordinates would commit such acts, particularly inside a police station, and insisted that had he known, he would not only have stopped them but would have had them arrested.

The complainant has maintained throughout the trial that, on the night of 11 October 2022, she approached the two officers, who were on patrol in Thiseio, a central Athens neighbourhood, to ask for help with a problem at the restaurant where she worked. She testified that the officers claimed to have no knowledge of the matter and directed her to the duty officer at the Omonia Police Station. Once there, she said, two of the men led her into the locker room and raped her, while one of them filmed the assault.