Four police officers are to stand trial before the Athens Mixed Jury Court over the way they handled the final hours of Kyriaki Griva, before the 28-year-old was murdered by her former partner outside a police station in the Athens suburb of Aghioi Anargyroi on 1 April 2024.

According to a referral order issued by the Athens Judicial Council, a panel of judges that rules on whether a case should proceed to trial, the officer on duty, the supervisor, the guard and the call handler of the Immediate Action unit (112), Greece’s police rapid-response service, at Aghioi Anargyroi Police Station have been sent to trial. Griva had gone to the station that day seeking protection and help.

The four policemen are charged with the felony of fatally exposing a person to danger through omission, after the referral order found that their failures were directly linked to the tragic outcome, namely the violent, fatal attack on the young woman.

The order sets out in detail the actions that, in the judicial council’s assessment, each of the four officers ought to have taken in order to protect Griva and prevent the attack on her.

According to information from the referral order, it states of the four defendants: “Acting with intent, through omission, they exposed another person and thus rendered them helpless, while they had a specific legal duty under the law to act to prevent that outcome, and they left unhelped a person who was in their protection; their act caused the death of the victim.”

The same order also maintains the restrictive conditions imposed on the defendants after they gave their statements.

Responsibilities

The court document sets out in detail the criminal responsibility of each of the four officers. Regarding the call handler, it notes that he should have recognised the seriousness of what the young woman was telling him, classified the incident as an urgent case of domestic violence, and forwarded it as a “high-priority” case so that a search for the attacker could begin and the woman could be safely driven home.

On the role of the police station itself, the judges say it was not on alert and failed to realise in time that, just 30 metres from the guard post, Griva’s former partner was approaching on foot carrying a knife. He reached the complainant, who was standing outside the police station, 1.5 metres from the guard post, and attacked her ferociously with the knife.

Regarding the duty officer, the judges note that she should have contacted the Immediate Action Centre so that officers could locate the attacker, and should have arranged for a patrol car to be made available to take Griva home safely.

Finally, on the supervisor, the judges say that although Griva had filed her complaint and asked for a police escort, meaning a patrol car, because she feared for her physical safety, the supervisor did not help her and did not guide the duty officer on the steps that needed to be taken to protect the young woman.