The much-debated scandal involving the Vatopedi Monastery is set to begin on Monday, without however any political divs standing trial after all. The main defendants in the case are the Monastery’s Abbot Ephraim and Monk Arsenios, with officers at the State Mortgage Company and State Legal Council also indicted.
At the center of the case are Lake Vistonida and lakeside plots of land, which the Vatopedi Monastery [pictured] claimed it owned by presenting imperial golden seals from 1080. The scandal emerged in 2009 after it was appeared that these disputed plots of land around the lake were being traded with high value State property.
In 2003 the Monastery went to court over ownership of the land, however shortly before the courts were to issue a verdict the Finance Minister at the time withdrew the government’s claims, based on the decisions of the State Legal Council and other bodies. According to the case file, the defendants are accused of infidelity and false certification, which harmed State interests.
During questioning charges were brought against the Minister of Agriculture Development Evangelos Basiakos, his Deputy Alexandros Kontos and the Deputy of Finances Petros Doukas. When the case was referred to the courts though, the judges decided that the limitation period of the crimes the former ministers faced had lapsed.
