The arraignment of father Antonios for the felony of abusing a minor in indecency against two boysis recommended to the Council of Misdemeanors by the Prosecutor of First Instance Dimitris Nomikos who studied the case file which was filed against the founder of the NGO World Ark after complaints from two food workers in the organization’s structures.

Mr. Nomikos requests that the cleric be tried by the Mixed Jury Court for the act attributed to him based on Ms.complaints of the two food, aged 15 and 19 years todayjudging in particular how one case concerns the abuse of an unruly victim who has not reached the age of 14 and the second a victim who has reached the age of 14.

In the prosecutor’s proposal it is emphasized that from the material collected in the case of the two boys during the interrogation, there was “sufficient evidence” of guilt of father Antonio. In fact, Mr. Nomikos emphasizes that the accused “perpetrated sexual acts” at the expense of the two minors “taking advantage of the dominant position he had in the general operation and activities of the Arkthe trust shown in him by the children as well as his priestly form, acting with a common pattern of criminal behavior and an identical approach to juveniles”.

According to the prosecutor there is no issue of “fabrication of facts”as the priest claims, as the case file contains witness statements that fully verify the complaints made by the two children.

As stated in the proposal: “The allegations of the accused cannot be acceptedas there is an abundance of cross-referenced and often verified witness statements of people who worked or stayed at the Ark or had come into personal contact with the sufferers, all of whom confirm the complaints”.

Father Antonios appeared before the investigator of the case, last June claiming that the two complaints against him are completely false, the two complainants unreliable and leaving hints that the case is part of a wider design aimed at him and his work. After his confession, the accused was declared free by the interrogator and the prosecutor with the imposition of the conditions of the ban on leaving the country, the mandatory appearance once a month at a Police Department and a monetary guarantee of 10 thousand euros.

In his proposal, Mr. Nomikos asks the judges of the Council of Misdemeanors to maintain the restrictive conditions imposed on Father Antonio until his trial.