A landmark court decision for the punishment of the perpetrators who were involved in revenge porn before the adoption of the new article of the Penal Code on revenge pornography (Art.346 CC), has not only brought a major victory for our client, but also served as a moral vindication not only for her personally, but also for all victims of revenge porn.
With the enactment and introduction of Art. 346 CC into the Greek Criminal Code in June 2022, it was decisively established that revenge pornography constitutes a felony, contrary to the previous treatment of the offence, which concerned acts committed before June 2022 and was covered by the provisions of the Law on Personal Data Protection, which basically resulted in the punishment of this act as a misdemeanor (Article 38 §§ 1-3 of Law 4624/2019).
Our client, like countless other victims, who was subjected to the persistent sharing of her personal data containing sexual content on the internet and in her familiar environment by her former partner before June 2022, saw her perpetrator brought to justice only on a misdemeanor charge, in accordance with the indictment of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Our team sought and fought to change the charges from misdemeanor to felony, namely, to enforce paragraph 4 of Art. 38 of Law 4624/2019 instead of paragraph 3. The Athens Three-Member Magistrates’ Court, subsequent to the testimony of our witness – client and after the completion of the taking of evidence, corroborated our claims, admitted our request and classified the act as a felony, by referring the case to the jurisdiction of the Athens Three-Member Court of Appeal for Felonies.
As society changes, so do its laws. It is our duty to contribute with all our power, each in our own capacity, to a society that is fairer, safer and more humane.
Our client was represented by lawyers Alexandros Androutsopoulos and Dimitrios Zanganas.
