Ministry employees charged over de-mining NGO funding
Thirteen Greek Foreign Ministry employees and a representative of a now defunct nongovernmental organization were charged on Wednesday with fraud, embezzlement and making false statements in connection to two de-mining projects more than a decade ago.
The suspects were charged over de-mining programs in Bosnia worth 1.2 million euros in 2000 and 2001.
Anti-corruption prosecutors concluded that the NGO, the International Mine Initiative (IMI), should not have received the money.
It is the second set of charges issued in connection to the organization.
Eight people, including an adviser to George Papandreou while he was foreign minister in the early part of the last decade, have already been charged over IMI’s activities.
The organization undertook de-mining operations in Bosnia, Iraq and Lebanon and is alleged to have received more than 9 million euros illegally between 2000 and 2004.
