One more judge faces the sack
Yet another middle-ranking judge yesterday faced the threat of dismissal for her alleged role in a suspected trial-fixing ring made up of members of the judiciary, churchmen and lawyers. Supreme Court president Giorgos Kapos referred court of first instance judge Aspasia Basta to the high court’s plenary session on disciplinary charges of incompetence and «lack of moral standards» – an offense for which last month two judges were sacked and banned from working in the future as lawyers or civil servants. A total of three judges have lost their jobs after a series of investigations this year into inefficiency, bribe taking and other offenses in the wake of the trial-fixing scandal. None of those three were linked to the ring. Over a dozen more judges face dismissal as a result of the investigations. Basta has been linked with the priest believed to have been at the heart of the trial-fixing ring, Archimandrite Iakovos Yiossakis. She allegedly switched bench rosters to ensure that she handled court cases in which he was involved, and paid 3,000 euros into the priest’s bank account.
