TV license trial: L. Kretsos unanimously found innocent, Io.-Vl. Kalogritsas and the members of the Evaluation Committee

The former general secretary of Information and Communication, Lefteris Kretsos, and five members of the Evaluation Committee of the competition for television licenses in 2016, were unanimously found not guilty by the 6th Three-Member Court of Misdemeanors, from the charge of false certification, as well as the businessman Ioannis-Vladimiros Kalogritsas, who was tried for moral authorship in the act of the rest.

The court, accepting the proposal of the prosecutor’s office, declared the defendants innocent, for whom the prosecutor’s judgment was that they “did not prove any false incident” and that they did not act fraudulently in the case of the guarantees provided by the businessman in the context of the contest in question.

“The Commission decided with specific means at its disposal, at the specific moment in time. He was mentored by Grant Thornton. He had an assurance that if the first installment is not paid, the company will be declared bankrupt as it was”, said the public prosecutor’s office which emphasized that “there is no fraud on the part of the accused. It was not proved that there was knowledge on their part of attestation of false facts. The defendants should be declared innocent.”

Earlier, both Mr. Kretsos and the academics who were part of the Commission said in their apologies that the terms of the competition had provisions for safeguards and that the whole process proceeded as the promulgation stipulated.

“I came 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,” said the former Secretary General of Information and Communication.

Mr. Kretsos said that in 2010 the Council of State had ruled illegal the way spectrum was allocated to television stations. “After 27 years of operating private television stations we are the first to grant licenses in Greece, as such a competition had never happened before. They had given the spectrum to specific interests. I am an academic. We had the will not to be like the previous governments,” he added.

Referring to the accused members of the Commission, Mr. Kretsos said: “I am sorry because these people 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. I didn’t check the data. I received a recommendation from the committee that I trust, which I saw 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 to the State Council to stop the competition and it did not stop us. In 15 days Mr. Kalogritsas should bring the money. The public interest was fully secured for us.”

President: Do you know why Mr. Kalogritsa’s company did not receive the loan?

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

The committee members pointed out to the court that the tender had several stages as safeguards before the decision and pointed out that they acted under media pressure, without remuneration.

The accused businessman chose not to apologize in court represented by his lawyers.

The case was prosecuted in 2019, on the grounds of the Financial Prosecutor that the businessman’s assets were not checked.

RES-EMP

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