An appeal to the European Court of Human Rights was announced by Nikos Pappa’s defense attorney, Yiannis Mantzouranis, after the decision of the Special Court which unanimously found the former minister guilty and sentenced him to two years in prison suspended for three years.

The statement of Mr. Manzouranis follows:

Unfortunately, today the members of the Special Court unanimously decided to bind the vengeful prosecution of Nikos Pappas by his political opponents with a binding court decision.
Here and now two comments are required:
First, when politics enters the courtroom, then justice exits.
And secondly, respect for Justice is not enforced. It is won when its officials have the fortitude to judge only on the basis of the Constitution, the law and their conscience and above all when they do not settle for anything but the truth.
No court decision is self-justifying. Only the public scrutiny of its rationale allows the verification of its correctness or otherwise and can provide any judicial decision with anything but bindingness and persuasiveness and, consequently, the respect of the citizens.
After all this, the Appeal to the European Court of Human Rights is not only a given, but also absolutely necessary.