NEWS

In Brief

BOURBOULIA

Supreme Court prosecutor initiates disciplinary action Supreme Court prosecutor Evangelos Kroustallakis yesterday initiated a disciplinary process against former examining magistrate Constantina Bourboulia, who conducted probes into alleged stock market manipulations between 1999 and 2000. The action refers to nine alleged misdeeds – including alleged breach of duty – which could mean her being barred from court in the future. Kroustallakis also asked Justice Minister Philippos Petsalnikos to suspend Bourboulia temporarily from her current duties as a judge in a court of first instance. An inquiry last month found Bourboulia failed to report her relationship with a lawyer who represented firms she was investigating. RENDI MARKET Prosecutor brings charges against managers for illegal operation A Piraeus prosecutor yesterday brought charges against the entire management of Athens’s central Rendi meat market, and all the resident butchers, for illegal operation. The charges were brought following the completion of a preliminary investigation into the market’s health and safety standards by European Union officials, who found standards fell far short of EU regulations. THESSALONIKI RIOTS Seven remanded, two sentenced Seven demonstrators, arrested during extensive rioting in Thessaloniki on Saturday, were remanded in custody yesterday after an investigating magistrate pressed criminal charges against them. Three Greeks, two Spaniards, a Briton and a Syrian were taken to the northern city’s Diavates Prison. Meanwhile, a 26-year-old Frenchman and a 24-year-old Italian woman, also arrested during the riots, each received two-year jail sentences, suspended for three years, and were fined 3,000 euros after a Thessaloniki court found them guilty of illegal weapon possession. Criminal charges were pressed on Tuesday against another 20 alleged rioters. Civil War exiles Greece intends to allow thousands of non-ethnic Greek political refugees who left the country for the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia during the 1946-49 Civil War to visit the country for up to 20 days, Deputy Foreign Minister Andreas Loverdos said late on Tuesday. He stressed that the exiles would not be allowed to resettle in Greece. The measure will come into effect this summer. Kokkalis An Athens court yesterday rejected a suit filed against telecoms and software tycoon Socrates Kokkalis by Russia’s National Athletics Institute. The institute had sought the freezing of the legal status of the assets of a company named European Games Limited apparently owned by Kokkalis, in order that its financial demands should be met. Joint patrols Cyprus and Italy will conduct joint sea patrols in the eastern Mediterranean to stem the flow of illegal immigrants to the European Union, Italy’s deputy prime minister, Gianfranco Fini, said during a visit to Nicosia yesterday. Road protest Dozens of residents of Aspropyrgos, on the western outskirts of Athens, yesterday morning attempted to block the Athens-Corinth national road outside the local distillery in protest at financial penalties they face in order to legalise their illegally-constructed homes. Police used tear gas to quell protesters – mostly ethnic Greeks from the former Soviet Union – who pelted them with sticks and stones. Circus abuse A Thessaloniki court yesterday gave a five-month suspended jail sentence to the leader of a circus troupe after finding him guilty of animal abuse. Animal welfare groups in the northern city had brought charges against the management of Circo Mosca where they said an elephant, badly injured by the chains it was kept in, was forced to perform. Yacht licenses Yachting enthusiasts will need to be in possession of a license to captain vessels over 7 meters long as of January 2005, Merchant Marine Minister Giorgos Anomeritis said yesterday.

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