Greek MEP Nikos Pappas suspended from Syriza party after alleged assault on journalist

Greek MEP Nikos Pappas has been suspended from the left-leaning Syriza party and will be referred to the ethics committee after he attacked a journalist at a bar in Strasbourg.

In a statement, Syriza said that party president, Socrates Famellos, had also suspended Pappas from the party’s group in the European Parliament for what the statement called his unacceptable behaviour.

It comes after the journalist Nikos Giannopoulos, a reporter for Greece's News24/7 website, said he was attacked by Pappas on Tuesday evening.

Giannopoulos claims that as he was about to leave the bar, Pappas deliberately tripped him, and when confronted, challenged Giannopoulos to take the problem outside and "settle the score".

As Giannopoulos was leaving the bar, Pappas allegedly hit him twice on the head from behind, causing him to fall over.

The journalist said he had filed a police complaint with the Strasbourg authorities on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the Greek government released a statement after news of the alleged assault broke.

"This incident follows previous disparaging and aggressive behaviour by this MEP, with many different victims, for which his party followed the tactic of silence and political cover-up. He had to go out on a limb to force Syriza to expel him," the statement said.

"Be that as it may, the fact that for so long they kept a man with such recurring behaviour in their party is further proof that those who pretend to be the preachers of morality and the honourees of the rule of law are in fact the biggest hypocrites."