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A trade union leader wanted 50,000 euro to not "occupy" a hospital

08 October 2013 / 17:10:08  GRReporter
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A trade union leader from Sotiria Hospital was apprehended while asking the director of the hospital to give him money in order for the hospital workers not to go on strike and not to protest against the renting of an abandoned building belonging to the hospital for the establishment of a research centre.

The person apprehended at the time of receipt of 50,000 euro is the head of the trade union of the hospital workers, Vassilis Koniaditis. This is the first case of a trade unionist arrested for bribery.

As Minister of Health Adonis Georgiadis points out in an extraordinary statement to the media, the Ministry informed the Greek police department for combating extortion  two weeks ago and it started following, registering and recording by cameras all meetings of the head of the trade union of Sotiria Hospital with its director Maria Kara.

According to sources, the trade union leader had asked for a portion of the 4 million euro granted, under the OP National Strategic Reference Framework, to the Institute for Medical and Biological Research at the Academy of Athens to enter into a contract with Sotiria Hospital. It is expected that the investigation will reveal whether other union members or hospital workers are hiding behind the funding as accomplices.

The Minister of Health stressed before reporters, "We will be relentless in every case of corruption", adding that those who are shouting the most, referring to trade unionists, "are not always right."

When asked by journalists about the party affiliation of the trade union leader, Minister Georgiadis said that, as far as he knew, he had been a member of the Greek trade union movement of workers (PASKE) in the past but, recently, "he has become a violent opponent of the memoranda."

Communication of the Greek Police:

Yesterday, officers of the Department for Combating Extortion in the Directorate of Security in Attica, arrested a Greek citizen, aged 45, who is a civil servant and the head of the trade union of a public hospital, against whom a preliminary investigation has been initiated for extortion, illegal possession of weapons and resistance.

The arrest was carried out following a complaint from the hospital, according to which the person had requested, by extortion, the sum of 50,000 euro in order to cancel the activities of the trade union against the signing of a 20-year lease contract for the establishment of a research centre in an abandoned building belonging to the hospital.

According to the data submitted by the management, at recent meetings in the office of the director of the hospital, the detainee had taken special security measures, checking the mobile phones of the director and deputy director to ensure that their conversations were not recorded.

Yesterday at noon, during an appointment requested by the detainee at the hospital director’s house in a suburb in Athens the person was handed the sum of 50,000 euro in marked banknotes.

Upon leaving the building and after seeing the policemen, the man, aged 45, attacked them and tried to escape but failed. The sum of the marked banknotes was found on him.

During a search carried out in the house and car of the person in question, the following items have been found and seized:

- a WALTRO gun - Mod 85, combat type, 9 mm, with a cartridge

- two folding knives and a pair of handcuffs

- a folding metal baton

- a BERETTA shotgun, 12 cal and

- a tape - recorder

Tags: Trade union leaderBribeSotiria HospitalMarked banknotes
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