District attorney Nikos Zagorianos, who is responsible for the bribing and money laundering investigation in the Greek branch of Siemens, issued an unheard before arrest order. He order the arrest of the 22 year old daughter of one of the accused in the scandal, who was taken out of her home last night in Athens. Early in the morning her mother and her two younger twin sisters were arrested at Elefterios Venizelos airport when they were returning from Rhodes island.

The head of the family Hristos Karavelos is one of the main suspects in the bribing scandal in Siemens. He managed to get away from the Greek justice and preferred to be questioned in front of the German one. The same way his previous boss Mihalis Hristoforakos used to do. His family is accused in participation in the money laundering crime and in attempts to legalize illegal income. His wife Martha has joint accounts with her husband in several banks, among which is the Athenian brand of HSBC, the London bank Berkleys and one more Swiss one. His daughter’s accounts show big transactions of when they were no more than 17 years old.

“These are unseen actions for the investigation, which could not have been possible if we were not in the pre-election period,” comment lawyers and attorneys. The arrest order for the Karavelos family is based on law 2331 from 1995 about participation in money laundering. Experts, who are not connected with the Karavelos’ defense, do not dispute legal grounds but speak of a drastic measure from the part of the DA, which has one clear goal – to scare the accused through the arrest of his family and to force him to return to Greece.