[CPProt.net] Greece: Key scandal testimonies

[MSN and CPProt list (Ton Cremers)]

Key scandal testimonies 
 Yiossakis, Kaloussis to testify on alleged trial-fixing ring; Vavilis
charged 
As churches all over the country yesterday held vigils to pray for an end to
the corruption and sex scandals bedeviling the Church of Greece, two key
suspects are scheduled to testify today in connection with the trial-fixing
allegations that opened a Pandora's box of lurid claims regarding senior
judges and churchmen.

The first, Iakovos Yiossakis - a priest in detention pending trial for
antiquities theft - was allegedly the eminence grise at the center of the
ring, while the second, Court of First Instance President Evangelos
Kaloussis, is suspected of having sexually exploited a series of immigrant
women and to have banked vast sums that cannot be legitimately accounted
for.

The ongoing investigation into a series of judges and prosecutors suspected
of corruption has already led to the opening of Kaloussis's accounts in
Greece which, according to judicial sources, point to the judge having
received a large number of bribes.

Kaloussis is also understood to have been implicated in further wrongdoing
yesterday, during the testimony of yacht-rental entrepreneur Sotiris
Kritikos, on one of whose yachts the judge has been photographed with
another disgraced member of the judiciary, Constantina Bourboulia - sacked
for her handling of a major stock-manipulation probe.

Supreme Court deputy prosecutor Giorgos Sanidas has established, according
to sources close to the investigation, that both Kaloussis and Bourboulia
handled two serious cases - fuel smuggling and double manslaughter during a
petrol station explosion - in which Kritikos was in the dock. In both
instances, the businessman appears to have been treated with surprising
leniency.

Kaloussis is expected to face criminal charges later this week.

Meanwhile, yesterday an Athens prosecutor brought misdemeanor charges
against fugitive drug dealer Apostolos Vavilis - who has been linked with
Archbishop Christodoulos in another aspect of the scandal - for forging
documents identifying himself as a monk and renting an Athens flat under a
false identity.

Ahead of yesterday's vigils, the Church of Greece, which has pledged to
uproot corruption in its ranks, issued a circular accusing unnamed enemies
of "trying to marginalize the Church, which is the spiritual mother and the
covenant of our people."


http://www.ekathimerini.com/