Greek Director Dimitris Lignadis to Remain Detained on Rape Charges
Dimitris Lignadis is brought to the court on Thursday. Credit: AMNA
The investigating magistrate and the prosecutor ruled early on Friday that former Greek National Theater director and actor Dimitris Lignadis should be further detained until trial.
Lignadis, who concluded his testimony before a prosecutor on Thursday, has been detained since Saturday evening over charges of sexual abuse.
He is accused of two rapes. One of a 14-year-boy, in 2010, and another for which the victim has been deposed in front of prosecutors and which has not been made known as of yet.
Athens, Greece – The Greek MeToo movement lit by Olympian Sofia Bekatorou is becoming a wildfire that now burns uncomfortably close to the government.
Culture minister Lina Mendoni faces opposition calls to resign after two men accused the National Theatre director she appointed of raping them when they were barely adults.
Opposition leader Alexis Tsipras reissued his call on Tuesday for Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, “to do the obvious, even at this late stage, and relieve Mendoni of her ministerial duties”.
“And he should apologise to the victims and the Greek people for his government’s mistakes,” said the leader of Syriza.
Olympian Sofia Bekatorou spoke up about sexual abuse in sport and others followed suit in a #metiSofia movement, sparking Greece’s own #metoo as women from all walks of life remembered their own tales of abuse and misogyny.
Actress Zeta Douka spoke up about being verbally abused and kicked, when she was a young actress, working with actor/director George Kimoulis. This opened the floodgates to complaints by other actresses about the difficulties of collaborating with the talented but ‘violent’ director.
Alexandra Tavouliari said she had felt “terrorised” by him, Evdokia Roumelioti lost her voice and took pills to calm her nerves, Katerina Papoutsakis also had psychosomatic issues, Katerina Geronikolou said she stopped believing in herself and Fay Xyla called her time with Kimoulis a most difficult collaboration.
19 January 2021 10:17am
Veteran Olympic champion Sofia Bekatorou was summoned to testify before prosecutor Sotiria Papageorgakopoulou on Wednesday, after she reported that she had been sexually abused by a Sailing Federation official in 1998.
Despite the launch of the prosecutor’s investigation, other possible victims of similar behaviour must now come forward to testify in order for the case to be prosecuted, as the offences Ms Bekatorou described are now statute-barred.
Ms Bekatorou told the Greek edition of Marie Claire that she had suffered the assault in 1998 when she was 21 years of age.
Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis commended the athlete on social media for speaking up.
Greek Olympian Sofia BekatorouGreek Olympian Sofia Bekatorou opened Pandora’s Box with her rape allegations against the Vice-President of the Hellenic Sailing Federation (EIO) as more athletes spoke out about sexual harassment. The news came as a shock, as Bekatorou’s allegations brought to the surface a taboo issue that plagues not only the sports world but…