Court commutes 8-year jail term for hospital cleaner to suspended sentence
A Greek appeals court on Monday commuted an eight-year prison sentence that had been passed down to a hospital cleaner for forging her education record to a three-year suspended sentence.
The mother of 13, from Ioannina in northwestern Greece, had started working at the city’s university hospital in 2003, but faced justice when it emerged that she had secured the job by falsifying her primary school certificate to suggest she had graduated in 1980 rather than 1981.
The woman argued that she had falsified the certificate to be able to support her children.
The court found her guilty of making a false statement and forgery that cost the state 120,000 euros but acknowledged that she had no other offenses and commuted her original sentence.
The cleaner, who was not named, thank the Greek judicial system, her colleagues and citizens for standing by her.
