In prison for five years was convicted former mayor of Edessa who was found guilty by the Three-member Court of Criminal Appeal of Thessaloniki for infidelityan act connected with a deficit of more than 4 million euros in the coffers of the municipality, during its administration, in the period 2001 to 2010.

The same penalty was imposed on the then head of the financial service of the municipality. Both were released pending retrial as the appeal was decided to have a stay on the execution of the sentence.

For the same case, the two defendants were acquitted in November 2021, in the absence of malice, as the Court had ruled at the time. However, the acquittal decision was appealed by the Supreme Court, as there was no sufficient justification in the rationale of the decision, with the result that the case returned to the Tripartite Court of Criminal Appeals and was tried from scratch and with a new composition.

In addition to the two above who were convicted, the treasurer of the municipality, who has since passed away, was also brought to trial. In the indictment it is stated that the then mayor and the head of the financial services did not take the necessary actions to control the management actions performed by the treasurer – municipal employee, they did not control the financial balance of the annual management and there was a disorder regarding income and expense accounts.

The district attorney requested their release, because it did not find that the defendants acted with malice. “There must be a selfish motive that certain persons benefited, for example suppliers of the municipality, but here no such evidence was brought forward,” he said in his plea. But the judges had a different opinion and found them guilty.

In their apologies, the defendants denied the act, stressing, among other things, that the municipality since 2002 had hired chartered accountants who never spoke of a real deficit and damage to the municipality’s finances.