Yiossakis free of first charge
Former priest Iakovos Yiossakis and monk Kyrillos Stavropoulos were yesterday cleared of stealing antiquities from a monastery on Kythera in 1996. The men were cleared after the prosecutor recommended that the charges be reduced to attempted theft, a misdemeanor for which the statute of limitations had passed. Stavropoulos had earlier attempted to jump out of the Piraeus courtroom’s third-story window after the prosecutor said the pair had intentionally dug up the antiquities. «I cannot accept hearing this from you because I have given my life and blood to the monastery,» Stavropoulos said. «It is best if Christ takes me now,» he added as he bolted toward the window, only to be prevented from jumping out by policemen and lawyers. Yiossakis was kept in custody as he has been charged in connection to an alleged trial-fixing ring.
