A 22-year-old local woman remained in an Athens-area hospital’s ICU on Saturday a day after being stabbed in the back by a foreign national in broad daylight along the Greek capital’s best-known “high street”.
According to a latest medical bulletin, the woman’s condition was described as serious but stable. She sustained two stab wounds, one of which punctured her lung and pierced her diaphragm. She also suffered a broken rib. However, she was awake, alert and breathing on her own, physicians said.
The perpetrator was identified as a 32- or 42-year-old Iraqi traveling with a German passport. He reportedly entered Greece the day before the attack in a legal manner. Initial reports erroneously cited an Iranian national.
According to media reports, when arrested by police immediately after the attack he claimed he suffers from mental problems, stating, in fact, that he believed the young woman was a “German secret agent” tailing him.
The arrest on upscale Ermou Street was captured on video and posted on several social media platforms.
The suspect was charged with intentional attempted homicide, as well as possessing and using a weapon. In a first appearance before an investigating magistrate he requested and received a deadline of March 5 to provide testimony.
