Greek MEP Nikos Pappas has been thrown out of his political group after allegedly assaulting a reporter at a bar in Strasbourg.

A delegation of journalists from Greece had visited Strasbourg to cover the plenary session and was in a late-night bar called Aedan Palace, which is popular with MEPs. Pappas, an MEP for the left-wing Syriza party and a former professional basketball player, was also in the bar, according to several people who were present and who were granted anonymity to speak freely.

According to a description of the events on the Greek website news247.gr, which employs the reporter, Nikos Yiannopoulos, he and a colleague decided to leave at around 11:30 p.m., at which point Pappas attempted to trip him. The reporter said he asked the MEP not to touch him again, and that Pappas then proposed that they go outside.

The report says Pappas followed the two journalists toward the exit and twice hit Yiannopoulos from behind, knocking him to the ground.

The two journalists said they returned to the bar, and as the Greeks tried to leave they bumped into Pappas, who threatened them. An hour later Pappas sent apologies by text message and tried to reach the journalist by phone, but he did not reply.

Yiannopoulos filed a complaint with local police.

POLITICO reached out to Pappas, but he did not reply to a request for comment.

Syriza President Socrates Famellos subsequently expelled Pappas from the party’s European Parliament group and requested that Syriza’s ethics committee also expel him from the wider ranks, according to a senior Syriza official.

“This incident follows previous instances of contemptuous and aggressive behavior by the MEP in question, with many different victims, which his party chose to silence and cover up,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said. “He had to resort to physical violence so that Syriza would be forced to expel him.”

Thomas Shannon, spokesperson for The Left group in the European Parliament, to which Syriza belongs, said: “We take allegations of violence extremely seriously and we are aware that the member has been expelled from the Syriza delegation. A formal procedure … has been launched to take a final decision on the concerned MEP’s position in The Left group in the European Parliament.”