Spiegel ordered not to publish Tsochatzopoulos’s name
Germany?s weekly Der Spiegel magazine has been ordered not to publish the name of former Defense Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos and to publish his response to claims made in the publication in connection to under-the-table payments when Greek purchased four German submarines.
According the Athens News Agency, the magazine was informed of the court measures this week following legal action by Tsochatzopoulos, who denies any wrongdoing.
Greece had identified technical problems with the Type 214 diesel-electric submarines, manufactured by ThyssenKrupp in Germany, as being the reason for not accepting delivery of the four vessels that it ordered between 2001 and 2005
The first submarine, dubbed Papanikolis, had been docked in Kiel from 2006 until it was finally delivered last year. There was an agreement to build three of the submarines and refurbish another three at Hellenic Shipyards, west of Athens.
It has been claimed that Ferrostaal, a subsidiary of the MAN Group until 2009, which was part of the consortium that won the contract in 2000 to supply the submarines, paid 10 to 12 million euros to secure the deal for the first of these vessels.
The agreement for the four submarines was worth 1.26 billion euros.
