Another domestic incident reached the courtrooms of Thessaloniki, this time with a 42-year-old victim, who accused her husband of threatening her, beating her and trying to suffocate her. The Autonomous Single-Member Misdemeanor Court of Thessaloniki sentenced him to 24 months in prison, the execution of which was suspended pending an appeal under the conditions that he leave their shared family home where they live with their five children and not approach the victim within 50 meters.

The incident that led the defendant to Autoforo happened yesterday afternoon, when, according to the complainant’s testimony, he complained to his wife of 20 years that she does not pay attention to him and shows indifferent behavior towards him. “I told him I didn’t want to talk and since he insisted I mentioned some things that bother me, which he refused. Then he stood up, came and shouted in my face and hit me with a cuff […] He took me by the neck and threw me down. He continued to shout and complain, grabbed me by the throat and tried to choke me. He was pressing my head to the floor with his hands and body, he was squeezing me by the neck.”

“He’s threatening to kill me”

Present at the event were their two youngest (minor) children, according to what she said. He also testified that in the last four years the incidents of threats and violence have been repeated. “He threatened me several times that he would cut my throat. He also made the sound with his mouth. He often tells me that he will kill me,” he said, while describing a typical incident that happened a month and a half ago when he was driving his car on the Ring Road at a speed of 150 km/h with her in the vehicle. “He was saying ‘you didn’t want to die, now you’ll see.’ He was hitting me until we reached Diavata, as he was driving. He stopped when he hit me in the eye and understood.”

He confessed to being violent

In his plea, the defendant accepted his actions, admitting that he is violent, while asking the court to impose the longest sentence and send him to prison. “I want to go in and not go out. I struggled a lot to raise the family of 7. The reason we fought was because I didn’t take her to the beach. I work long hours and sleep only five hours”, he pointed out and referring to the controversial incident he apologized: “I hit her because she spat on me while I was lying with the baby. I didn’t smash her to the wood, I didn’t use my strength normally, I wanted to scare her and I did it out of defense.”

The court found him guilty of domestic violence and menacing (continuing) as well as insulting, while the convicted person appealed against the decision and was released (under the above restrictive conditions).