Image-Based Abuse on the Rise in Greece, But so Often Unpunished

It was Amalia’s* own husband who shared intimate images of her on Instagram. The father of her child.

She only found out when she saw a notification on his phone from an unknown account, which turned out to contain photos of her naked. Her husband apologised and, finally, admitted trying to make money from the images.

“Never could I imagine that the man I was with for 16 years and had a baby with could do something like that,” the 35-year-old told BIRN.

“I tried to justify it to myself for a while,” she said. “But I started having panic attacks and not feeling well.” The couple divorced.

Amalia, who spoke on condition her real name was not published, was one of six women in Greece between the ages of 25 and 64 who told BIRN they had been victims of non-consensual intimate image sharing, NCII. One of them said she was just 14 when the photos were shared.

All of them said the images were shared without their consent on Meta platforms Facebook or Instagram or on internet porn sites. In four cases, the perpetrator was the victim’s husband, partner or ex-partner.

According to data obtained by BIRN from the Greek police, registered cases of NCII in Greece shot up 46 per cent between 2024 and 2025, from 205 to 300 cases.

Punishment is rare, however. Of the six women who responded to a BIRN online questionnaire, only one said she had gone to the police. The perpetrator deleted the Facebook profile where he had posted the images, and the police did not pursue the matter. Only two said they were familiar with the procedure for reporting such incidents.

“These acts are a very common phenomenon, with victims ranging from minors to adults, from everyday people to celebrities,” said Vicky Gkani, a lawyer specialising in data protection and cybersecurity issues. Often, the perpetrators have little fear of being punished, while their victims face the consequences for years after.

“We live in a society that will first go after the victim and then the perpetrator,” Gkani told BIRN.

In a European Union-funded study of cyber violence against women and girls in Cyprus, Greece, Ukraine, Slovakia and Lithuania, published in April, 76 per cent of female respondents between the ages of 15 and 35 said they had experienced, witnessed or knew someone who had experienced acts or threats of cyber violence. Out of a total number of 467 respondents, 100 were Greek.

Cyberstalking and gender-based hate speech are the most common forms of cyber violence in Greece. Roughly a third [32.7 per cent] of all respondents said they had witnessed NCII, 12.5 per cent said they knew someone who had been targeted, but no one said they themselves had been a victim.

Victims of NCII rarely seek justice, whether due to a fear of the stigma or because they do not even realise what has happened to them. Evidence is also a challenge.

The decision to consult a lawyer “presupposes the awareness of what you have experienced and to call it violence”, said lawyer Anastasia Karagianni, co-founder of Greek non-profit DATAWO, which promotes gender equality and protecting women’s rights in the digital age, and one of the authors of the EU-funded study.

In cases of online gender-based violence, Karagianni said, “there are few times when you have clear evidence of what happened”.

Gkani added: “I actually know cases of people who have been victims and don’t talk and don’t pursue it because they may experience criticism even from their family circle and social circle, that you shouldn’t pursue it because you’re partly to blame.”

That stigma is believed to have played a role in the death of 22-year-old student Galini Koemtzi, who was found dead in 2016 outside the student dormitory where she lived in the northern city of Thessaloniki. She is believed to have killed herself by jumping from the ninth floor.

According to the case file, Koemtzi was being blackmailed by her ex-partner, who had in his possession intimate images and video of her. It is alleged that her actual partner at the time was sent the video and told her he wanted to break up. The same night, Koemtzi was found dead.

“It is terrible because someone led this sensitive girl into a very difficult situation,” said the Koemtzi family lawyer Othon Papadopoulos. “The act had tragic consequences, and nobody was blamed for it.”

“I estimate that if Galini’s case were happening today with the existing legislative regime, it would have a different development,” Papadopoulos told BIRN. “The mistake is that the law on revenge pornography should have been enacted much earlier.”