Supreme Court prosecutor Giorgos Sanidas said yesterday that someone arrested for committing a crime today may not be sentenced until the year 2010 and has proposed that courts extend their working hours to speed up the judicial process.

Speaking at a meeting of the prosecutors’ union in Athens, Sanidas said that courts should stay open for business until 8 p.m. instead of the current closing time of 3 p.m. so that more cases can be heard by judges each day.

Sanidas said that the extension of court hours would double the number of cases heard, without any need to change laws or find more courtrooms.

Judges’ unions and the head of the Athens Bar Association Dimitris Paxinos said they were not in favor of Sanidas’s proposal.