The 9 defendants were sentenced to prison terms of 15 to 7 months with a three-year suspension for illegal subsidies from OPEKEPE in the Grammos area during the period 2019-2020.
Shortly before the end of the session, the court ordered that the minutes of the decision be forwarded to the European Public Prosecutor to investigate whether the offense of disloyalty has been committed by the executives of OPEKEPE and the offense of fraud for anyone who has illegally received subsidies, as well as the act of forgery regarding a will (presented to the court) that shows the defendants as heirs of thousands of acres of land.
Five of the seven defendants were granted the mitigating factor of prior cohabitation, while the court rejected the mitigating factor of sincere remorse after the act.
The European prosecutor, referring to the three convicted persons who returned the money, said that they did so "after they had been served with individual notices and one of them after the legal remedies had been exhausted. They returned the amounts to avoid the enforcement procedure and not because they showed remorse. If they had returned them voluntarily before the audit, then sincere repentance could have been established and they could have enjoyed the mitigating circumstance."
It should be noted that a few days ago, another 13 defendants were convicted by a Misdemeanor Court for illegal subsidies for areas in Fthiotida. The court imposed prison sentences ranging from 6 to 40 months. The defendants appealed and were released from the courts.
In both cases, an investigation was preceded by the European Public Prosecutor's Office, which has sent other case files that will soon reach the court, following complaints about subsidies from OPEKEPE with false information.
Source: skai.gr
