Trial-fixing ring busted in Salonica
An ongoing legal investigation into alleged trial-fixing rings has traced a circle in Thessaloniki believed to involve at least seven individuals, including judges, lawyers and customs officials. According to details revealed about the probe, which is being conducted by Supreme Court prosecutor Georgios Sanidas, the ring has allegedly helped secure favorable court verdicts for a businessman accused of bogus fuel exports as well as drug dealers and university professors facing various misdemeanor charges. It is thought that bogus name-drawings were used on a number of occasions to appoint specific judges to trials whose verdict the ring wanted to influence. One particular lawyer, who has been implicated in an alleged trial-fixing ring in Athens, is believed to have played a major role in the Thessaloniki scam too. He is one of five individuals linked to a court decision softening an earlier sentence for a businessman alleged to have carried out bogus fuel exports, cheating the government out of millions of euros in taxes.