Greek prosecutor recommends guilty verdict should stand for Mantelis
Former Transport Minister Tassos Mantelis (photo) should not be cleared of failing to declare cash he received from German electronics and engineering giant Siemens, deputy Supreme Court prosecutor Vassilis Pliotas recommended on Tuesday.
Mantelis was handed a three-year suspended sentence in 2011 for submitting a false source-of-wealth declaration.
The ex-minister admitted receiving money from Siemens but said it was an election campaign contribution rather than a bribe.
Mantelis accepted the equivalent of about 200,000 euros from Siemens.
He has launched an appeal against his sentence at the Athens Appeals Court, which will issue its verdict after studying Pliotas’s reasoning.
The prosecutor said the original decision was well founded and did not breach Mantelis’s rights.
Mantelis is the only politician so far to be convicted in connection to payments made by Siemens to Greek decision-makers and public officials to secure state contracts.
