Judge trials magistrate named
The magistrate who will hear the cases of judges facing criminal charges in the wake of recent trial-fixing allegations was chosen yesterday, as a Supreme Court investigation widened further. A plenary session of 188 appeal court judges unanimously voted in favor of Yiannis Sideris being appointed as the magistrate to preside over the questioning of members of the judiciary who are to stand trial on a range of corruption charges, including trial-fixing and accepting bribes. Yiannis Fiorakis was named as his assistant. The two prosecutors, who will have the task of bringing criminal charges against the relevant judges once the Supreme Court’s preliminary investigation is complete, are due to be named today. Meanwhile, Supreme Court prosecutor Dimitris Linos has proposed that two more judges, Nektarios Vazeos and G. Papadoukakis, appear before the court to face expulsion. This takes the running total of judges that could be fired to eight. The pair are not thought to have been involved in any trial-fixing ring but are facing claims that they did not do their jobs properly and delayed some cases unnecessarily. A Thebes court also ruled that former first instance judge Constantina Bourboulia should face questioning over allegations that she accepted bribes. However, another middle-ranking judge, Antonia Ilia, who is already under investigation for allegedly fixing trials in cases where Archimandrite Iakovos Yiossakis is accused of acting as a middleman, is thought to be the main focus of the Supreme Court’s probe at the moment. She is likely to face criminal charges over the alleged early release of drug dealers, accepting bribes and being involved in money laundering, sources told Kathimerini.
