Seven defendants, all non-politicians, have been found guilty of misdemeanor fraud by a single-member appellate court in a case involving illegal claims of agricultural subsidies from the Greek authority responsible for disbursing European Union aid (OPEKEPE) in Grammos mountain in northwestern Greece.
Three of the defendants reportedly received subsidies from OPEKEPE in the period 2019-2020. As the prosecutor emphasized, they submitted applications in order to receive community aid. The first approximately 35,000 euros, the second approximately 45,000 thousand euros and the third approximately 97,000 thousand euros.
All three defendants have returned the amounts they received as tenants of land in the areas of Kastoria, Kozani and Florina.
It is noted that part of the amounts they received for the year 2019 concerned aid for young farmers. The court accepted the prosecutor’s reasoning and rejected additional arguments that the offense had been nullified by repayment of the funds.
The seven defendants include also an individual mentioned in the case file submitted to Parliament by the European Prosector’s Office with the findings of its investigation into OPEKEPE and the suspected embezzlement of millions of euros in EU farming subsidies. This individual had been tasked with mapping and identifying traditional grazing lands across Greece, daily kathimerini reported.
The seven defendants have been sentenced to 9 to 15 months in prison.
The fraud of EU agricultural funds via the Greek distribution agency OPEKEPE has turned into the biggest scandal of the last couple of years, threatening even the survival of Mitsotakis government, as ministers appeared to be allegedly involved.
