The well-known television presenter Stathis Panagiotopoulos was sentenced to five years in prison by the Three-member Court of Misdemeanors of Thessaloniki, who was referred to trial on the charge of publishing – through the Internet – material with private moments of his ex-partner.

As APE-MPE reports, accepting the proposal of the district attorney, the court upgraded the contested act to a felony (from a misdemeanor), ruling that the defendant acted with the intention of causing harm to the victim. The judges did not recognize any mitigation for him, while they decided to suspend the execution of the sentence in view of the next level of jurisdiction (Five-member Court of Appeal), with the restrictive conditions of the ban on leaving the country, the appearance at a police station and the payment of a guarantee of 10,000 euros.

The trial was held behind closed doors at the request of the victim. In his apology, the 60-year-old allegedly accepted his act, but emphasized that he did not act with the intention of causing harm to the complainant. He claimed, according to information, that it was “passion”, the product of a diagnosed mental illness.

The above case – the first of the three that saw the light of day, with a common criminal subject – reached the Three-member Court of Appeal of Thessaloniki after successive appeals against the previous decision of the Misdemeanor Court by which the 60-year-old had been sentenced to five years in prison, suspended. (and an additional fine of 10,000 euros).

Among those who had appealed was the prosecutor, on the grounds that the particular offense (breach of personal data, by extension) should be upgraded to its felony form, which it did.

In these circumstances, the previous decision was set aside. As a felony – after all – the two other court cases revealed in December 2021, for which he had been released with restrictive conditions, after his apology, were treated as felonies.