The chairman of the Aglaia Kyriakou Children’s Hospital Haris Tompouloglou has been arrested, along with his 40-year-old accomplice, on extortion charges. The disgraced hospital chairman will be taken to the courts to state his plea later in the day, on Friday.

While the sum demanded by the hospital chairman would normally lead to misdemeanor charges, the prosecution decided to upgrade the bribery charge to a felony, as Mr. Tompouloglou exploited his position of authority. When accosted by the media on his way to court Mr. Tompouloglou professed his innocence and claimed that he intended to donate the money to the hospital.

Mr. Tompouloglou ran for mayor of N. Philadelphia – N. Halkidona in the previous municipal elections with the support of New Democracy. After his arrest Mr. Tompouloglou was expelled from New Democracy, with the governing party’s Central Ethics Committee taking the decision promptly.

According to the police report Mr. Tompouloglou approached an advertising company that had a contract with the hospital and threatened to cancel the contract, demanding a bribe. The company’s director reported the extortion attempt to the police, which launched an operation.

The police monitored the phone calls between Tompouloglou and the middle man, who arranged for a 25,000 euro bribe. During the telephone conversations the hospital chairman can be heard openly discussing his willingness to extort the company and referred to the bribe as “tickets” and “days off”.

The Minister of Health Adonis Georgiadis was quick to point out that the Mr. Tompouloglou was appointed by the hospital and not the government. He also requested that the government have a say in the appointment of the hospital’s chairman.

To that end the Hospital’s board of directors along with the Minister of Health convened on Friday morning and decided to depose Mr. Tompouloglou from his position as lifelong chairman and board member