Sunday, March 1, 2015

Greece: Greedy ministers in jail – Aftenposten

Greece: Greedy ministers in jail – Aftenposten

Two separate other former ministers from the Social Democratic PASOK party are also fields for economic crimes.

This week trial against Giorgos Papakonstantinou.

He was finance minister when Greece in 2010 was forced to request emergency assistance from the other EU countries and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Papakonstantinou was pulled into a case concerning Greeks with secret bank accounts in Switzerland after he resigned as minister in 2012.

A parliamentary investigation commission decided to withdraw charges against him.

Scandals in line

Papakonstantinou is not the only former top leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), which has been implicated in financial scandals.

Another former PASOK-minister Yannos Papantoniou, was last November sentenced to four years in prison for failing to declare the money in your bank account in Switzerland.

Also, his wife received the same punishment. Both have appealed. Their case comes up for a new court in Athens in June.



20 years in prison

The biggest villain of them all however Akis Tsochatzopoulos, who co-founded PASOK in 1974 after junta fall.

Tsochatzopoulos was arrested in April 2012. The following year he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for being part of an extensive network of money laundering.

The purpose was to hide millions of dollars to government buy weapons ended up in their pockets.

Widespread corruption

Corruption has been a familiar and widespread problem in the Greek state apparatus for years.

The new Greek government of the radical left Syriza party and the right-wing populist mini party Independent Greeks, who took power in January this year, has announced a settlement with this culture of corruption.

Thrown out of the party

– I reject all accusations, said Papakonstantinou when the trial began this week.

His defenders litigate that case is obsolete.

Papakonstantinou was both finance and energy, climate and environment minister before the political career came to an abrupt end .

He was kicked out of PASOK party when it became known that he had allegedly removed the names of three relatives on Lagarde list.

From storms to mini party

The debt crisis has broken the once mighty and state bearing PASOK party. At the January election the party won only 4.7 percent of the vote.

Along with the right party New Democracy has PASOK given responsibility for crisis policy in the past five years.

It has led every fourth Greek out in unemployment and the country is experiencing the greatest economic depression in Western Europe since the interwar period.

Published: 01. march. 2015 9:40

LikeTweet

No comments:

Post a Comment