Special court: Kalogritsa’s private secretary testified

THE Evthalia Diamantiparticularly the businessman’s secretary Christou Kalogritsatestified at the Special Court on the Responsibility of Ministers, which is hearing the 2016 television license case, testified that “envelopes and bags of money were leaving Mr. Kalogritsa’s office, which were money for assistance to the party.”

In the Special Court in which former Minister of State Nikos Pappas and businessman Christos Kalogritsas are accused, the latter’s secretary for 40 years, Mrs. Diamanti, testified that “envelopes and bags of money were leaving Mr. Kalogritsa’s office, which were money to help the party (SYRIZA)” and added that money was also given to journalists, as well as to other persons, who planned the operation of the channel and the newspaper (a newspaper would be published alongside the channel).

Mrs. Diamanti said that the businessman was asked to help the SYRIZA project to establish a television station, which would be a party channel that would be commanded by Mr. Pappas and the party, and added that Mr. Kalogritsa was asked to “lend” his name to the establishment of the channel. Furthermore, the witness mentioned that Mr. Pappas visited Mr. Kalogritsa every day, sometimes even twice a day. Before Mr. Pappas went to Maximou, he used to come to the offices of Mr. Kalogritsa’s company, they talked for about an hour and left, and he added that several times the businessman went to Maximou and there he saw Mr. Pappas and others.

At the same time, Mrs. Diamanti referred to the Cypriot lawyer Artemis Artemiou, for whom she pointed out that before the payment of the 1st installment he promised that money was in Cyprus and Switzerland and was coming and added that in the businessman’s office Mr. Pappas told Mr. Artemiou : “Artemis, tell Kalogritsa that the money will come.” The witness repeated that “a lot of money was leaving for the party”, while she clarified that Mr. Artemiou appeared in September 2016 and said that he wanted to help financially for the matter of creating a channel.

The trial continues tomorrow, while the court decided to call the brothers Samer and Wael Khoury of the construction company Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) to testify on January 20, 2023. A related request had been submitted to the court by the advocates of Mr. Kalogritsa.

The businessman’s advocates Andreas Loverdos and Angelos Karahalios in their statement they pointed out that “they are now a set of key witnesses who have testified so far and from their testimonies it is very clear that the breach of duty on the part of Mr. Pappas”.

Yiannis Mantzouranis, Th. Mantas and V. Georgakopoulos, advocates of Mr. Pappa, in their statement state: The witness and employee of Mr. Christos Kalogritsa, Mrs. Thalia Diamanti, testified that her employer “wanted” to create and lead television station and invested “a lot of money, seven figures” in his son’s participation in the competition for television licenses and in the creation and employment of a press team. He confirmed, that is, that Mr. Kalogritsas did not simply put his name in the claim for a television license, that he was not a “frontman”, since he invested financially and controlled the preparation and participation of his family in the competition. He also pointed out that Mr. Kalogritsas invested time and made a personal effort to find a partner. And how, years later, he decided to take legal action against the Khouri family, when he himself was called – after a court decision – to return the 3 million euros of the transaction between them.

Mrs. Diamanti, answering questions from the prosecutor, admitted that her reports are the result of her “crisis” and information she had from a… half-open door. Without, of course, participating in meetings and without having the same knowledge of the issues under consideration. As he admitted, “I wasn’t listening to all the conversations, I was listening to a limit. I wasn’t always present.” She also referred to the large circle of acquaintances of Mr. Kalogritsa and his contacts with politicians from many political areas, businessmen, etc.

Given the indisputable relationship of dependent labor of Mrs. Diamantis to Mr. Kalogritsa and possible influence by her employer, nothing new emerged at the meeting.

The ones that dominated were personal judgments, unsubstantiated “information” and some witticisms to create political impressions. What emerged was that Mr. Kalogritsas attempted to obtain a television license, but his inability to pay the first installment declared him exempt. By decision of the competent committee.

RES-EMP

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