Greek authorities are investigating a priest who shot a man. The victim is a 51-year-old Romanian citizen from Botoșani county and works as an unskilled laborer on Mount Athos. The man’s family requested the support of the Romanian Consulate in Thessaloniki, informs Newsweek.
The man from Botosani ended up in a hospital bed in Greece, after being shot by a priest, on Mount Athos. Moreover, he says, the church minister allegedly led him to tell the police that it was all a hunting accident. The man, an unskilled worker, is from Tudora commune, Botoșani county, but he has been working for two years at a hermitage in Mount Athos, near the cell of a priest, also Romanian.
He says that last week a cat angered the priest, so the priest pulled out a rifle and shot the animal. He did not take into account the fact that the worker was also nearby. The cat managed to escape, but the victim was hit by the bullet.
“The cat came to my feet. I got up from the bench, I went about three meters. The cat ran away from there. He went to the switchboard, took the hunting gun, loaded it and there was a ‘boom’. I immediately fell down, as if I had been hit by a car. What was he looking for with the rifle 3-4 meters from me? And he caught both my right leg and my left leg,” said the victim, according to a TV station.
“They took him to the hospital, took his report card, the parent went back, the statement was given as the parent wanted, under pressure, and since then no one has taken care of him. Until we came here, at the hospital, neither the embassy nor the consul was informed”, said the victim’s brother.
“He was promised that he would be taken to Romania and that they would take care of him, but they left him in the hospital to die out, doing absolutely nothing to him until the family arrived here,” said in her turn the victim’s sister.
The man says he was seriously injured in both legs, and they may have to be amputated. After the intervention of the family, the police took a new statement from him, and the man told them the whole truth.
Later on Friday, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the Romanian from Botoșani who was shot by a priest on Mount Athos was hospitalized in Polygyros on August 2.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) specifies that “it was notified by telephone, through the Consulate General in Thessaloniki, on August 2, 2023, regarding the hospitalization of a Romanian citizen in the town of Polygiros, as a result of an incident resulting in the gunshot wound of him, and has taken steps with the local authorities to obtain additional information regarding the identity and situation of the person in question.”
“According to the information obtained by the Consulate General of Romania in Thessaloniki, the Romanian citizen was subjected to specific medical interventions in a medical facility in the area, and an investigation into the circumstances of the incident is ongoing,” the statement sent by ministry.
At the same time, MAE says that the Romanian authorities are in contact with the family of the 51-year-old man: “The representative of the General Consulate of Romania in Thessaloniki has made available to the victim’s family the contact details of a Romanian-speaking lawyer and requested the police for detailed reports on the circumstances The Consulate General of Romania in Thessaloniki continues the dialogue with the local authorities, the medical unit and the family of the person in question and provides consular assistance with a view to repatriation.”