The circumstances in which a fight broke out between a group of young Cretans and a family of Greek-Canadians are revealed by a video published by cretalive.gr and which is also available to the Greek Police.
The fight ended with a brutal beating for the 49-year-old Greek-Canadian, who was taken to hospital with serious injuries. The unimaginable fact is that it all started with… a cigarette butt.
What does the video show?
Cretalive’s revealing video shows the family of the 49-year-old Greek-Canadian preparing to leave the bar. As they head out, a patron (one of the accused) accidentally touches the Greek-Canadian’s hand with his cigarette, who turns his head toward the group while rubbing the spot where the cigarette had touched him.
The video has no sound so that there is an image of the dialogue, but it appears that the cigarette-smoking Kritikos nods his head to the 49-year-old man to tell him that he did not see him.
The Greek-Canadian, who is originally from Crete, makes a move to leave, but eventually comes back and addresses him, and they continue the verbal confrontation. Tension and shoving ensue, and the fight moves outside the bar.
Notifying the police
According to police information, it all started in the early hours of July 16, at 2 am, in a nightclub in Heraklion, where the Greek-Canadian was having fun with his family.
Two to four people who were having fun in the same place attacked the 49-year-old man, as well as his partner and her son, hitting them with punches and kicks. The 49-year-old partner’s second son was also slightly injured.
From the preliminary investigation, the perpetrators’ details were identified relating to two Greeks aged 32 and 33, the first from Zoniana and the second from Malevyzi Heraklion, who are wanted.
Intervention by the Minister of Tourism
The case of the brutal beating reached major proportions.
In fact, it prompted the intervention of the Minister of Tourism, Olgas Kefalogiannis, who contacted the hospital administrator to find out about the health of the Greek-Canadian father and requested an investigation into the incident.