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The police have arrested former Secretary General for Armaments Antonis Kantas by order of magistrate Gabriel Malis. Kantas succeeded Yiannis Sbokos in office and was accused of bribes amounting to millions of euros for the supply of electronic systems for submarines from Atlas, as well as money laundering. According to the information, he has been detained in the General Directorate of the Police and has until Tuesday to testify.

According to the report of the Agency for Combating Money Laundering, a bank account in Singapore has been discovered, with the amount of 13.5 million euro attributable to an offshore company, the administrator of which is Antonis Kantas.

According to the indictment, together with the Germans and Milenbek Haun and former head of the Greek shipyards Sotiris Emmanuel, a criminal organisation was created and the bribes received from it reach astronomical amounts of millions of euros. This is the second time Kantas has been arrested. He was accused in another case related to rearmament, after a transfer to the amount of 500,000 euro to his account in a Swiss bank was discovered. In that case, he testified before investigator Malis and was released on bail of 500,000 euro.

Antonis Kantas was in a slightly lower position in the hierarchy of the Ministry compared to Yiannis Sbokos, who has recently been convicted in the case against Akis Tsochatzopoulos and has also been involved in other cases. Last September, Kantas was arrested by order of the magistrate against corruption Georgouleas because of the amount of 500,000 euro and charges in connection with the rearmament programme "Ermis 2", related to the communication system of the army.

Kantas was released on bail after his testimony on direct complicity in the betrayal of former Defence Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos on corruption charges in connection with the contract for the modernisation of the Army telecommunications, signed in September 1999, when Tsochatzopoulos was Defence Minister.

In addition to bribes, Kantas has been charged for the legalisation of revenues from illegal activity and direct complicity in treason, because of the contract with Siemens for the communications of the army. The indictment mentions that Kantas has received 500,000 euro from an unknown representative of Siemens transferred via Prodromos Mavidis and mediated by banker Oswald.