Condemnation for 13 of the 25 a href=”https://tomanifesto.gr/katigoroymenos”>a href=”https://tomanifesto.gr/katigoroymenos”> 25 defendants in a case of illegal subsidies from the OPEKEPE in the period 2016-2018, the Third Criminal Court of Appeal issued a decision imposing sentences of prison with probation.
After several days of proceedings, the judges declared 13 defendants guilty cfor the case, one of the first brought to court by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which involved subsidies totalling around 250 thousand euros in the Serres.
The court declared 13 unanimously guilty for, on a case-by-case basis, offences of fraud, complicity in fraud, false certification and instigating false certification. The convicted persons were granted the mitigating circumstance of the extenuating circumstance of lawful life and were given sentences starting from 5 months and reaching 26 months of imprisonment, suspended for three years,as the amount of the damage was reduced by changing the charge to a misdemeanour.
The judges’ decision followed for the most part the suggestion of the commissioned European Public Prosecutor Eugenia Kyvelou, who was on the bench, who called for guilt for most of the a total of 25 defendants. With the court’s decision, each convicted person was fined a sum of €1,200.
The trial began last January with 32 people sitting in the dock. At the start of the trial, however, seven of the defendants used criminal bargaining by pleading guilty and repaying an amount of about 165 thousand euros they had received as a subsidy during the period in question. The sentences imposed on them weretwo to three yearswith a 3-year suspended sentence.
