The trial of former Minister of Finances Akis Tsohatzopoulos continued today with interventions by Ministry of National Defense’s former General Director of Armament Giannis Sbokos and Mr. Tsohatzopoulos’ cousin Nikolaos Zigras.
Mr. Sbokos claimed that a sum of 25 million dollars, which Panagiotis Vlachos referred to at yesterday’s trial session, “was not a bribe but the legal commission from the implementation of offsets from the Tor M1 sale”. Regarding the contract with Antey and Drumilan Offset, Mr. Sbokos claimed that “the Drumilan payment came to 10% of the value of the program, exactly 25 million dollars”.
At that point Nikolaos Zigras spoke of the suitcase full of cash given to him by former Cypriot Minister of Interior Dinos Mihailidis to deliver to Akis Tsohatzopoulos: “The money was given to me by Dinos Mihailidis. I took the suitcase to Tsohatzopoulos. He opened it and it contained 80 million drachmas”. Mr. Zigras then exclaimed “I am Bluebell”.
Mr. Zigras testified that he had no personal interaction with Areti Tsohatzopoulou “just her father”. The court president Christos Katsianis commented that “whoever comes into contact with Zigras gets dirty”.
