The two-day apology procedure for the case was concluded at dawn with the decision to remand one of the 22 defendants in the alleged criminal organisation in Crete accused of receiving illegal subsidies from the OPEKEPE.
It is noted that the particular accused who is being remanded in custody is an accountant and is alleged to be a founding member of the organisation.
The pleas began on Friday morning with the first twelve defendants, who were released, and continued yesterday morning from Saturday morning for the rest.
In their decision, the European Investigating Judge and the appointed European Public Prosecutor agreed that one of the two accused brothers, accountants from Rethymno who are accused of making false statements, should be taken to prison.
The judges’ verdict for the other 10 defendants, who were brought to court yesterday morning for their pleas, is that they should be released on restrictive conditions and the imposition of bail of up to ten thousand euros each.
According to the case file, apart from the two brothers, persons involved with certain Declaration Reception Centres played an important role in the case. One of them has a deputy mayor’s position in a municipality of Crete and has been linked to KYD since 2021. This defendant appears to claim that he has not been involved in any illegal activity. As he allegedly said in his apology, he was accepting declarations through a KYD without having the possibility to check legality . “According to the regulation, we are not allowed to access any land. Whether it is declared or not. Whoever comes, just declares the land to us and all we do is posting. We don’t have access to the E9, we don’t have taxis codes,” he told the Inquiry Officer.
The charges against the 22 relate, on a case-by-case basis, to her offences: Directing a criminal organisation, forming and joining a criminal organisation, fraud against the interests of the European Union to the extent of a felony, direct complicity in fraud, and money laundering.
