Trial for television licenses: The prosecutor requested the acquittal of L. Kretsos, I. Kalogritsa and 5 other members

The acquittal of the former general secretary of information and communication, Lefteris Kretsos, of Ioannis-Vladimiros Kalogritsa, son of Chr. Kalogritsa and the five members of the Evaluation Committee of the competition for television licenses were requested by the prosecutor of the seat of the 6th Three-Member Criminal Court of Athens.

“The commission did not certify a specific false factual incident. She judged with the specific means she had at her disposal, at the specific moment in time. He was mentored by Grant Thornton. He had an assurance that if the first installment was not paid, the company would be declared bankrupt, as it was. There is no fraud on the part of the defendants. It was not proved that there was knowledge on their part of attestation of false facts. The accused should be declared innocent” said the prosecutor.

Earlier, six of the seven defendants who were present at the trial were excused. Lefteris Kretsos and the five members of the committee, apologizing, denied the charge of false certification they are facing. The only defendant who did not apologize was Ioannis-Vladimiros Kalogritsas, who was represented by his lawyers and who is accused of moral complicity in the false attestation.

The former general secretary of information and communication Lefteris Kretsos emphasized among other things: “I was the leader of the authority that organized the competition. I have come to apologize out of respect to your court, but I want to make it clear at the outset that I am proud, angry and burdened by what has happened.

We are the first to grant licenses in Greece after 27 years. In the case of Greece, such a competition had never happened. They had given the spectrum to specific interests. The Council of State said this is illegal in 2010. I am an academic. We had a will not to be like previous governments.

I am sorry because these people (including the members of the Commission) suffered abuse and had consequences in their professional lives. I chose them based on their academic background. The criteria were experience, competence, knowledge, not to be related to party formations. The propaganda was too great, we had vested interests that did not want to change the situation.”

Mr. Kretsos pointed out in his apology that he had confidence in the judgment of the Commission. “I did not check data. Did I receive a recommendation from the committee? who I trust, who I could see had worked hard and in collaboration with Grant Thornton. I had no qualms. We moved within the limits of the announcement. We had insurance applications at the State Council to stop the competition and it did not stop us. In 15 days Mr. Kalogritsa should bring the money. The public interest was fully secured for us” said Mr. Kretsos:

Chairman: Do you know why the company did not receive the loan?

L. Kretsos: No, and I was not interested… I wanted procedure to be followed, no one to be wronged, money to come to the public and to have a sound broadcasting policy. The competition was transparent.

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