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Vatopedi Scandal: Greek ex-ministers culpable of fraud against the State
Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Politics
A Greek preliminary parliamentary committee held five ministers of former conservative Karamanlis government (Nea Dimokratia) responsible for fraud against the State and breach of duty. Four of them additionally moral responsible for money laundering.
Petros Doukas, Alexandros Kontos, Evangelos Basiakos, Giorgos Voulgarakis and Theodoros Roussopoulos(ex-government spokesman) have been implicated in the land swap and real estate scandal, the so called Vatopedi Scandal, that has costed the Greek state millions of euros, as it has been estimated.
The parliamentary committee saw involvement of the five ex-ministers into exchange of real estate between the state and the Vatopedi Monastery prior Efraim and set up a deal to give valuable public property to the monastery in return for land of much lower value. The deal has been made through dubious property deeds from Byzantine and Ottoman times.
Read more on The Vatopedi Scandal (scroll down the page)
On November 16, the plenary of Greek Parliament will vote and decide about the conclusion fo the preliminary investigation. Absolute majority of 151 votes is needed; PM Papandreou’s PASOK has 157 lawmakers.
If approved the 5 ex-ministers will appear before a judicial council composed of judges from Supreme Court and the Council of State. There it will be decided whether the offenses have been written off or not.
If after all these votes and judges will come to trial, a Special Court will have to be set up.
Last June, conservative Nea Dimokratia members walked off the committee speaking about ”political scheming”. Today Nea Dimokratia speaks of “political filth” and “political dishonesty”…
The Vatopedi scandal brought down the Karamanlis governmet in 2009 as believers and non-believers were scandalized alike to see monastery prior Efraim enjoying the protection of his political friends of the then government.
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