Former Culture Ministry general secretary Christos Zachopoulos is due to continue giving evidence to the magistrate investigating the alleged blackmail scheme that led to Zachopoulos attempting suicide last December. Zachopoulos faced questioning last week for the first time since his fall. Zachopoulos’s former assistant Evi Tsekou and Christos Nikoloutsopoulos, a lawyer who accompanied her to meetings with journalists where they discussed her affair with the former public official, have been remanded in custody. Based on Zachopoulos’s testimony, magistrate Dimitris Economou will decide whether Tsekou and Nikoloutsopoulos can be released or must remain in custody.

A 30-year-old police officer was arrested in central Athens for possessing small amounts of illegal drugs and brass knuckles. Authorities said on Saturday they uncovered the narcotics and weapons after inspecting the officer’s vehicle. No further information was provided.

Police said yesterday a 25-year-old Iranian man had been killed in Hania, Crete, after being shot in the back of the head. Authorities said the man was killed as part of criminal activity in the area and questioned about 15 suspects in connection to the murder.

Two men were arrested in Thessaloniki on Saturday after they had allegedly broken into a church to empty its collection box. The two suspects, aged 26 and 17, entered the church in Skidra through an unlocked window, according to authorities. Police had been keeping an eye on the area after a recent spate of thefts from churches.

Three people were arrested in Drama, northeastern Greece, for possessing small amounts of heroin, police said on Saturday. A 73-year-old woman and two men, aged 39 and 28, were found in possession of narcotics after police acted on a tip-off. The woman’s 29-year-old son, who has been remanded in custody on drug charges, has also been connected to the narcotics.

An Albanian man suffered minor injuries in central Athens on Saturday when attacked by three unknown men who attempted to take his bag, police said. The victim was walking down a busy street when approached by the assailants, who struck him over the head with the butt of a gun. The thieves, however, fled empty-handed when a friend of the victim helped fight them off.

A 20-year-old air force conscript was killed in a car accident outside Hania, Crete, police said on Saturday. The man was killed when his car slammed into roadside barriers under unknown circumstances.

Police in Thessaloniki revealed on Saturday that they caught a Romanian man for whom an international arrest warrant had been issued. The unnamed 31-year-old had been sentenced to three years in jail in Romania for a series of robberies. He is due to appear in Thessaloniki before a prosecutor, who will begin extradition proceedings.

Coast guard officers picked up 13 migrants in two rubber dinghies in the port of Samos yesterday, the Merchant Marine Ministry said. The immigrants, including two young boys, said they had sailed the previous night from Turkey.