Nisyros / Was Lina Mendoni aware of the 2021 complaint?

With an island in turmoil, the successive complaints and the persistent questions even in the Parliament, which the Minister of Culture left unanswered, about the sexual harassment of minors by a 50-year-old antiquities guard in Nisyros, and even inside the island’s museum, the Ministry of Culture was forced yesterday to proceed with an EDE and to announce the suspension of the specific employee’s duties. As specifically stated in the announcement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “following publications in the printed and electronic press, in which reference is made to criminally reprehensible and disciplinary controllable behaviors of an employee of the EFA Dodecanese, an order was given to the responsible general director of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage to carry out an administrative investigation. In addition, by decision of the Minister of Culture Linas Mendonis, the above employee is suspended, in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Servants Code”.

In addition to this, the ministry is still silent on the fact that since the summer of 2021, a period when the Lignadis scandal had already broken out, an anonymous complaint had been made to the Ephorate of Antiquities of Dodecanese about the behavior of the antiquities guard. Was the minister aware of the complaint? If he knew her, what has he been doing all these years? If he did not know her, why did EFA Dodecanese keep the fact quiet? The mayor of Nisyros, with whose faction (PEKAN) the antiquities guard had stood as a candidate in the municipal elections, was he aware of the complaint that his citizen made in 2021?

Theodosia Oikonomidou: The complaint, even if it was anonymous, should have alerted the authorities

Theodosia Oikonomidou, lawyer of the minor’s father of Albanian origin, who on Monday reported the antiquities guard to the Security of Kos for insulting sexual dignity, is however clear. When we ask her if she was aware of the 2021 anonymous complaint, she underlines: “I have now seen the anonymous complaint and the accompanying photos. Such serious things are reported, that even this anonymous report should have alerted the authorities”. At the same time, he explains that the minor’s father “was served by the Security of Kos with a deportation decision within 25 days. The decision literally says that “you are given 25 days to leave the country”. If 25 days pass without a suspension or residence permit being issued, or if the Minister of Immigration does not revoke the decision, the child’s father must leave Greece. We, however, have and will use the weapons that the law gives us.” We ask her if she has seen the child. “I have not seen the child, what I do know is that, apart from being terribly upset when he heard of his father’s deportation, he almost collapsed. He considers himself responsible.”