9 more judges probed for graft
Another nine members of the judiciary, in addition to the four already indicted to face severe disciplinary charges for corruption, are under close scrutiny in the ongoing investigation, court sources said yesterday. One of the nine is an appeals court judge who is suspected of having demanded a 37-million-drachma (108,000-euro) bribe in 1999 to allow the release of a convicted drugs dealer, the sources said. The same judge is understood to have been disciplined with a two-month suspension in the past for interfering with the course of an investigation to ensure that another suspected drugs dealer should not be remanded in prison pending trial. Yesterday, Supreme Court President Giorgios Kapos added bribe-taking to the disciplinary charges against one of the four indicted on Tuesday, court of first instance judge Leonidas Stathis, while reaffirming his commitment to eradicating corruption from the judiciary. «I do not care whether there are 13 or 20 [judges under investigation],» Kapos said. «What I want is to cleanse the system.» The new charge against Stathis emerged after scrutiny of his bank accounts allegedly revealed that the judge had received four suspicious payments, including two from lawyers involved in cases he had presided over. Stathis is also under investigation for a number of other alleged offenses, including having intervened to ensure that his wife escaped prosecution for issuing dud cheques, social security fraud – he allegedly claimed to have built his house with his own hands, to avoid paying social security contributions for his workers – and breaches of building regulations.
