Ark of the World – Revealing testimony to SKAI: They had reported the incidents since 2015

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Earlier, there was an intervention by the Anti-Money Laundering Authority – “The accounts of father Antonios and the elder are opened

The developments in the case for the Ark of the World are stormy. The government announced today the new Board of Directors of the structure, which will henceforth be made up of people specialized in the protection of children. And while the complaints throughout Greece are multiplying, sworn auditors the finances of the organization will also flourish.

The head of the Ark of the World was appointed the economist and President of the Union “TOGETHER FOR THE CHILD” Alexandra Martinou, while the former Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Ioannis Tentes, and people with extensive experience in relevant institutions participate in the Board of Directors.

“We took the political initiative, even if we fought, and with a provision we passed in April we can change the Board. Otherwise we would have been doing it for years, this story would have lasted for years”, said Domna Michailidou.

Complaints of child abuse are already being investigated by the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office, as volunteers who provided services at the structure, workers in it, and instructors have been identified and called as witnesses.

One testimony leads to another, with former inmates or their relatives reporting extreme incidents of abuse. Some new shocking testimonies are presented in the following video while document document brought to light by SKAI reveals that Ark of the World has been aware of allegations of abuse since the summer of 2022. In particular, on August 12, 2022, eight employees of the structure in Volos sent a letter to the general director of all the NGO’s structures about physical violence by a specific employee and despite written complaints, Father Antonios, until the day before yesterday, declared ignorance about everything.

Revealing testimony to SKAI: They had reported the incidents since 2015

People who apparently had either suspicions or knowledge of what was going on in the structure are now plucking up the courage to speak up. Such as former structure worker which speaking to SKAI it is revealed that as early as 2015 he had made complaints about both mismanagement and violent treatment of children. The result, as she says, was that she herself was fired and the case, even though it went to court, was kept quiet.

“I had seen a pedagogue – the head of pedagogues at the time, hit a 12-year-old girl. The same little girl to be slapped, and also it was an incident in an infant that was not his fault, he had come out one night, the child’s elbow from a violent pull, from what a doctor who saw him the next day in the hospital told me » she declares herself and adds:

“I immediately informed the principal, believing that something would happen. That is, I immediately went and told the principal of the structure that so-and-so teacher hit such-and-such child or that the infant’s elbow was found injured. The manager did nothing. He didn’t change anyone from his position, he didn’t fire the teacher as he should have.”

He tried to inform Father Antonio about what happened.

“I personally called Father Antonios in Athens.. Father Antonios did not answer the phone, I could not find him. So one day I pretended to be a lady who wanted to make a big donation. He came out and I told him punitive tactics are used here, teachers get a lot of flak. His reaction was that I’m lying, he started yelling at me that I’m lying and that I’m crazy, she says.

One of the 2 Ark of the World institutions that exist in Epirus operates in Konitsa. The other one of Pogonianis is the first one for which complaints were made and indeed complaints of child abuse as early as 2015 and even by former employees in it.

“I made a complaint to 2 services so that it could have an effect, I made an official complaint to the Epirus police department, named and to the municipality of Ioanniton in the service of the person in charge of the welfare”.

When asked by the journalist if she knows if the investigations were done and what they ended up with, she states:
Of course I know that there was a raid by the police with a prosecutor on the structure in Pogoniani – he took statements from the children, normally, the policeman later another time when I went and found him with one of the policemen he told me that with what the children said they were terribly ahead in what I had denounced. The case went to the prosecutor’s office in Ioannina, I know that the prosecutor also took statements from educators and from then on we never found out what these children said. That’s where the case ended.

The police investigation was completed in 2015, her file was immediately submitted to the prosecutor’s office, however since then we have had no announcement that it was filed, it is certain that no criminal prosecution has been brought since then.

As she says, 6 months after the incident, she was fired because she was talking too much.

Intervention of the Anti-Money Laundering Authority in the Ark of the World

The intervention of the Anti-Money Laundering Authority was caused by information about the financial management in the structure of the Ark of the World, as its head, the Authority’s honorary prosecutor of the country’s supreme court, Charalambos Vourliotis, intervened and ordered a thorough investigation.

The object of the investigations into the finances of the structure is the search for evidence of possible offenses related to money laundering and other financial offences.

The Authority, which will act with competent audit bodies by opening accounts, either of the structure or of natural persons, such as Father Antonios and the elder, but also others who participated in the administration of the structure, will soon draw up a relevant conclusion. If the findings are of criminal interest, the finding will be sent to the Prosecutor’s Office for further action.

At the same time, while investigations into the finances of the structure begin, the Juvenile prosecutors Aikaterini Kopelaki and Dafni – Kyriaki Tsichli, are running the procedures with witness examinations, which are judged to be able to provide important evidence for incidents of violent behavior against minors and others for sexual harassment.

Prosecutors are treating the investigations as confidential due to the nature of the case and its highly sensitive aspects, and for this reason they are not disclosing witness statements.

However, according to information, a person who has worked in the Ark structure in the past was examined, while other employee testimonials are expected to follow in the coming days, in order to confirm children’s complaints of abusive behavior against them, while the Prosecutor’s Office through its head Antonio Eleftherianou organizes the examination of children who live in the structures of the Ark with secrecy and observance of all the required rules. However, the focus of the broad prosecutorial investigation is primarily Father Antonios and three more workers at the Ark of the World, while the offenses under investigation, in at this stage of the investigation, it is abuse of a minor in carelessness (felony) and bodily harm to the vulnerable (misdemeanor).

The prosecutorial investigations, however, according to the estimates of the head of the Athens Prosecutor’s Office, due to the extreme seriousness of the case that has to do with the protection of minors, will be completed as soon as possible

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