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The controversial court ruling which sentenced a kindergarten cleaner to ten years in prison for forging her grade school degree will be reviewed after Supreme Court Judge Xeni Dimitriou intervened in the case on Thursday.
The 53-year-old, who has not been named, was charged with forging the degree in order to get a job as a cleaner. In reality she had only completed fifth grade. She was hired as a cleaner for a kindergarten in 1996 and subsequently was charged with defrauding the Greek state and receiving wages illegally for a span of twenty years.
The first received a sentence of 15 years in prison, the appeals court later reducing the sentence to 10 years. The sentences caused a public outcry at the time for being excessively harsh. The woman is now in Thebes Prison serving her sentence.
The Supreme Court judge requested that a copy of the case be sent to her to examine the reasoning behind the decision taken by the Volos Appeals Court.
The woman spoke from prison to the newspaper Taxydromos and expressed shame for her deed, but explained the reason she committed fraud. “I’m ashamed for what I did, but I wanted my children to have a better life than mine. My soul was hurting from fear that they would grow up in an institution like me. ”
The woman expressed her gratitude to the countless people who supported her, and said she hopes to be released soon.
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