A three-member misdemeanor court found 57 out of 58 farmers from Crete guilty in a case concerning alleged illegal subsidy payments from OPEKEPE, based on false declarations of land in northern Greece.
The case concerned farmers from Crete who, according to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, falsely declared that they owned or used thousands of acres of land in Kastoria in western Macedonia.
The defendants declared the land in order to receive subsidies from the national reserve, presenting it either as grazing land or as cultivated land with olive or almond trees, although such crops do not thrive in that region.
By majority decision, the court acquitted one female farmer after accepting that she had repaid the amounts she received, with interest, which was deemed to extinguish criminal liability. The estimated amount was around 30,000 euros.
The court also modified some charges for certain defendants and reduced some of the amounts originally set out in the indictment.
The case reached the judiciary following a complaint by the president of the Kastoria Agricultural Cooperative, who testified during the trial.
Next week the court will announce the sentences and/or penalties for the farmers and whether it will accept mitigating circumstances for any of them as they have requested through their lawyers.
