The embattled abbot of a monastery on Mount Athos, Greece, was released yesterday on a €300,000 bail after spending around three months behind bars.
Ephrem, 55, chief monk of the Vatopedi monastery, had been remanded in connection with embezzlement, money laundering and making false statements in a case concerning a land swap deal with the Greek government.
The abbot, who is the brother of right-wing EVROKO deputy chairman Nicos Koutsou, will have to report to a police station and is also banned from leaving Mount Athos and the country.
Ephrem is accused of masterminding a scheme some six years ago in which the monastery exchanged cheap farmland with prime real estate in Athens – a deal that cost Greece millions.
“Exposure of the scandal precipitated the fall of the Constantinos Karamanlis government in 2009 and lifted the lid on the state’s mismanagement of its own assets.”
The abbot, along with dozens of other defendants, will stand trial, but the politicians embroiled in the scandal will not.
MPs have investigated three former government ministers over Vatopedi, but the case against them was dropped because it fell under a statute of limitations, AMNA News said. An investigation continued into monks and other public officials.
“Ministers said they relied on the advice of lower government officials telling them the exchange was not against state interests. But civil servants told prosecutors they endorsed the land swaps because they were told to do so by their superiors,” the Greek news portal said.
(source: AMNA, cyprus-mail)
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