Elefsina attack victim speaks to NEWS 24/7: “I was pressing on the vein to stop myself from losing too much blood”

The 32-year-old man who was the victim of a violent attack by two neo-Nazis in Elefsina yesterday afternoon described to NEWS 24/7 the ambush and the assault he suffered.

“Around 4:10 p.m., I had taken my two dogs for a walk outside my home in Elefsina. As I was leaving the house, a motorcycle carrying one of the two men passed by. He looked at me, continued for two or three blocks, and then returned with another man,” the victim said.

“They started shouting at me, ‘Come over here, we want to talk to you,’ and things like that. One of them wasn’t wearing a helmet, and I recognized him. They are known neo-Nazis in the area. I thought they had come to confront me verbally. Because I had my dogs with me and there was also a young girl nearby, I was trying to prevent that from happening. It was broad daylight. I kept telling them, ‘Wait, leave, what do you want from me?’

“The one without a helmet started saying, ‘We’re fascists, we’ll fuck you up, we’ll show you, we know who you are.’ I was still trying to keep tensions low and asked them what they wanted from me. They replied that I hadn’t personally done anything to them, but they knew who I was and which political movement I belonged to — that I was an anti-fascist,” the 32-year-old recalled.

While the motorcycle rider was speaking to him, the victim noticed that he kept one hand inside his small bag.

“I assumed he was the one carrying a knife, and that was my mistake. He got off the motorcycle and attacked me. I started hitting him and knocked him to the ground. But the other man had the knife, and while I was hitting the first attacker, he kept shouting to his accomplice, ‘Break him, hit him, break him.’”

“Then I started feeling the stab wounds, and I said to him, ‘What are you doing, you idiot? You’re stabbing me!’ He stabbed me in both legs and tried to stab me in the chest. I managed to avoid it, but there’s a mark showing where he tried,” he told NEWS 24/7.

“If I Don’t Make It, Know That They Were the Ones Who Killed Me”

At that moment, a motorist happened to be passing by.

“They fled, and I said to the driver, ‘Mate, I’ve been stabbed. Can you take me to the hospital?’ I was losing blood, pressing on the vein to keep from losing too much, and with my other hand I called my mother and told her, ‘If I don’t make it, know that these are the people who killed me,’ telling her who they were.

“I could see blood spurting out and didn’t know whether the injuries would be fatal. To his credit, the passing driver stopped, helped me into his car and took me to the health centre,” he said.

The victim was transferred by ambulance to Tzaneio Hospital, where he remains hospitalized. According to police, the perpetrators have been identified.

“The Progressive Part of Society Must Isolate Neo-Nazis”

Concluding his account, the 32-year-old told NEWS 24/7:

“This was an attack by cowardly thugs. They came equipped with helmets and a knife, and when they realized I was resisting and had managed to hit them, they decided to stab me in order to escape from the very ambush they had set up.

“What I want is for the progressive part of society, for democratically minded people, to isolate these elements. Regardless of whatever ideological differences we may have with one another, we cannot tolerate neo-Nazis within our society, in our schools and neighborhoods.”