The scandals around the German giant Siemens and the bribing in Greece are getting bigger.

On Friday the Athenian prosecutor’s office arrested the former executive director of OTE Georgios Skarpelis and the former executive director of Siemens Ilias Georgiou. The accusation is bribing and money laundering through contracts signed between Siemens and OTE in the period between 1994 and 1997.

According to some estimations, Siemens has paid over 100 million Euros to Greek politicians and functionaries in an attempt to bribe them in order to take new orders like the digitalization of the Greek telephone network, the army’s communication systems, as well as the delivery of the C4I security systems during the 2004 Olympic Games, which never came into use but cost one billion Euros.

Also on Friday the prosecutor’s office issued an order for the arrest of the former Siemens financial director in Greece Hristos Karavelas, because he did not appear in court. His lawyer said that Karavelas is abroad.

Justice Minister Nikos Dendias said that Karavelas’ family has imported three million dollars in Uruguay, where they bought a luxurious estate and a factory in Panama.

On Monday it became clear that the Justice Ministry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have known about Karvelas’ actions in Uruguay and Panama but have not done anything.

Ta Nea newspaper noted in its yesterday’s issue that the runaway of Karavelos abroad was provoked by a inner-party war in the managing New Democracy and the government is looking for a solution to the situation.

This unprecedented arrest order for the family of Karavelos shows the nervousness of the authorities. One of Karavelos’ three daughters was arrested and accused for money laundering, acquired in an illegal way.

The development of the scandal intensified the resistance of the two political powers.

In an interview for Niko Hadjinikolaou, the Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis answered to the straight question of whether New Democracy has been financed by Siemend with a firm “No and that such thing has never happened.”  A day earlier the same thing was said by the honorary chairman of the party Konstantinos Mitzotakis.