Galery

1

The second Greek politician who is sitting in the dock for receiving bribes is the former Minister of Communications and Transport of PASOK, Thassos Mandelis. The trial began today in the Court of Appeal in Athens.

According to the indictment, he had "laundered" money he had received as a "gift" from the German company Siemens for the signing of agreement 8002 for the digitization of the centres of the Greek telecommunications company OTE in 1997.

The bribes obtained by Mandelis were to the amount of 450,000 German marks which the former minister received in two instalments in 1998 and 2000. The sum had been allocated from the so-called "black funds" of Siemens and deposited in a Swiss bank account which George Tsougranis, a close associate of Mandelis, had opened under the name ''Rocos''.

Aristidis Mandas, also an associate of Mandelis, Ilias Georgiou, a former representative of the Greek subsidiary of Siemens, and Andonia Markou, a customs worker, are accused in the case in addition to the former minister and Tsougranis. The indictment states that some of the money was transferred through a bank account that Andonia Markou had in a Swiss bank. In her testimony before the investigator, Markou however states that defendant Ilias Georgiou used the particular account.

From the outset of the investigation, Thassos Mandelis has been stating that the money had been given as financing for his election campaign. The charges against him and the other three defendants include active reception of bribes, separately and jointly, as a single payment and continuously, to the detriment of the state, and legalization of proceeds from criminal activities.

The Greek justice started the investigation of briberies in 2008 when a scandal broke out in Germany that the German concern Siemens had bribed politicians in different countries to ensure their supply contracts, the total amount of the bribes for the period 1990 - 2006 being 1.3 billion euro. Its representatives stated before the German justice that the sums handed out to Greek politicians had been to the amount of 100 million German marks.

The bribes were handed out in accordance with the following scheme: The money was allocated from the "secret funds" of the company and reached the recipients through offshore companies. In Greece, the managing director of Siemens - Greece at the time, Michalis Christoforakos, and the former head of the Communications Department of the company, Prodromos Mavridis, allocated the money. Christoforakos was able to leave Greece on 15 December 2007 and was sentenced in Germany, since he is a German citizen as well. The German judicial authorities rejected the arrest warrants issued in Greece.

Another Greek politician, in addition to Thassos Mandelis, has admitted that he had received money from Siemens. He is Theodoros Tsoukatos, an adviser to the former Prime Minister, Costas Simitis (PASOK), who states that he had received 1 million German marks in 1999. According to him, the money had been transferred to PASOK’s party funds but, so far, the data have not proved his words.

At the beginning of the trial, Thassos Mandelis had requested the postponement of the hearing. The prosecutor had requested the same thing, referring to reasons connected with the interests of the Greek state. The appellate judges had rejected both requests.

The hearing was however interrupted and postponed at 10:00 am, as the trade union organizations of judges, prosecutors and staff in the judicial institutions had announced their work stoppage in protest against the incident on Friday, when a man of Iranian origin accused of drug possession had stabbed the secretary of an investigator. Lawyers also decided to stop working at the same time for the same reason.

The case against Mandelis and the other defendants has been scheduled for 25 November.