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Former president of TT Hellenic Postbank Angelos Filipidis will remain in prison in Turkey until his transfer to Greece. He was arrested in Istanbul on Saturday. The defendant claimed that he intended to return to the country. Therefore, he said that he was willing to be transferred and waived all kinds of means of protection.

Maltepe prison, picture: www.radiooropos.blogspot.gr

Turkish Justice has decided to send him back to Greece. The implementation of the decision will be finalized after the Greek Ministry of Justice sends the relevant documents. This procedure, according to consular services, can take between 2 and 40 days. During this period, Filipidis will remain in Maltepe prison, where foreign nationals are usually detained.

Filipidis’s lawyer confirmed that he was arrested in his hotel room. An arrest warrant was issued which became international on Friday and was executed on Saturday morning. According to information, with the help of his lawyer Thanassis Varlamis, Filipidis informed investigator George Andreadis that he wanted to appear in court on Monday.

Picture www.radiooropos.blogspot.gr

Filipidis has submitted his ticket to Turkish authorities in order to prove that he was planning to return to Greece and not trying to escape.

It is noted that Filipidis was arrested in a hotel room on Taksim Square in Istanbul after the Greek police submitted information to the Turkish authorities. During the arrest, the police discovered 311 Turkish lira, 5,615 euro, 1,005 British pounds, 18,090 Hong Kong dollars, 220 Swiss francs and 1,514 U.S. dollars.

In parallel, Filipidis had a Swiss residence permit, a foreign driver's licence, and two Greek passports, one of which had expired. According to the police, from Greece, Filipidis went to Turkey on 3 January.

"I have never said that I was in the USA"

In his statements on Mega TV after his arrest, Filipidis claimed that he had never said that he was in the United States. "Journalists have probably assumed this, since I often visit the country," he said, noting that he had no reason to explain where he was.

According to him, he had gone to Istanbul on 3 January and had planned to visit Dubai and Manila afterwards for professional reasons. "When I found out about the arrest warrant, I prolonged my stay in the hotel by four days," he explained, adding that his lawyer had spoken with the investigator on Friday and informed him that he would be in Athens on Monday in order to meet him. Filipidis was arrested at 2 a.m. He described the prosecutor's report as irrelevant.

The investigation

Regarding the case of TT Hellenic Postbank, an arrest warrant has been issued against Filipidis for causing damage to the state to the amount of at least 400 million euro. So far, five people have been arrested and two more warrants are expected to be executed. The testimony of the accused will begin on Monday. The warrants were issued after the report of the prosecutor against corruptio, Popi Papandreou.

The prosecutor claims that the defendants have given the green light to the issuance of extra-large business loans without guarantees which have been used for personal enrichment and not for their companies.