Photo: Kathimerini
The football boss Makis Psomiadis captured a few days ago was temporarily freed from the match-fixing case. However, he remains in custody for tax evasion.
After hours of interrogation, the investigator and prosecutor had a different opinion about whether the recent president of Kavala football club should be detained or released. A legal committee is to decide on the dissent and on whether the cult figure of football will remain in custody. In particular, the investigator suggested Makis Psomiadis to be released, banned from leaving the country and pay a bail in the amount of € 600,000. The prosecutor, however, expressed the opinion that the accused should remain in custody.
Makis Psomiadis will not be freed anyway because of the existence of a default judgment against him for unpaid debts to the state of around € 300,000. His lawyer said the defendant would gradually proceed to the payment of this amount in the coming days, an act that will "liberate" him in his opinion.
The famous football boss defined in the indictment as "gang leader" was taken to the investigator at 12:00h and began his testimony after 14:00h. Before hearing the defendant, the judicial investigator scrutinized his note in which he presents his version of the accusations. The legalization of proceeds from illegal activities was added to them.
The note defines the charges against Makis Psomiadis concerning the match-fixing case as "general and not susceptible to rebut." He believes he was subjected to "severe, brutal, extensive and persistent slanders" of print and electronic media. The information published in the media presents him as "guilty of serious and shameful crimes, without specifying concrete actions, victims or other circumstances" and it was directed not only against him but also against the members of his family. Makis Psomiadis states that the proceedings against him are totally invalid and asked for the withdrawal of the arrest warrant issued against him.
On the nature of the case, he states that the authorities did not compare the voice of the recorded telephone conversations with his voice. "Moreover, I am unable to know whether the dialogues contained in the indictment are full or sparse ... and whether as a result they are given a different meaning."
He questions the charges of the "criminal group", which he is believed to have created together with his son Stavros, the coach Yiannis Papakostas and Diamandis someone. Makis Psomiadis argues, "Diamandis and Papakostas could not be together in this "group" because Papakostas left the football club of Kavala on November 14, 2009 and Diamandis was appointed ten months later."
The note of Makis Psomiadis also reads that a committee of the Greek Super League freed from guilt Yannis Papakostas and his son Stavros Psomiadis was released for lack of evidence.
"The state lottery OPAP, which is believed to be the victim of my serious crimes, did not bring a civil action against me, although the lawyers of the Kavala football club invited the company to do so still on July 20."
In addition, Makis Psomiadis stresses that the indictment does not specify the persons "who are supposed to have been blackmailed or threaten by me or the financial advantage it is assumed that I sought."
On the charges of match fixing, he argues, "it is not possible for me to know the outcome of the matches because it could not be certain that a match could be settled through manipulation. The outcome of a football match is not a realization of a natural inevitability of the logic of manipulation. Therefore, the claim for the final result is not an allegation of a fact, such as the assertion that there will be a solar eclipse at some point in the future."