In Brief
SHAKY SCHOOLS
Officials pledge to soon fix buildings prone to earthquakes Authorities said yesterday that they will decide within the next two months how to fix more than 250 schools that inspectors have found to be vulnerable to earthquakes. The managing director of the School Buildings Organization (OSK), Panayiotis Pataryias, also told Kathimerini that all 4,500 schools which were built before earthquake regulations were introduced in 1959 will have been surveyed by the end of the year. VARTHOLOMAIOS DEATH Alleged murderer asks for IKA chief’s body to be dug up for second autopsy The man accused of murdering late IKA chief Yiannis Vrakatselis has asked for the civil servant’s body to be exhumed and a new autopsy carried out. Dimitris Vrakatselis’s lawyer made the request yesterday, saying that his client was not convinced by the coroner’s report which found that Vartholomaios died as a result of blows he received to the head. Vrakatselis has also asked for the fight between the two men to be re-enacted in an effort to clear up the discrepancies between his testimony and the evidence given by his wife, who witnessed the clash. Coroners charged A prosecutor yesterday charged the head of the coroner’s office in Athens, Philippos Koutsaftis, three coroners and the Justice Ministry’s general manager Maria Kapatsori with breach of duty in connection with the alleged improper appointment in 2004 of a coroner to the Piraeus service. Patricide case A 19-year-old man from Nikaia, near Piraeus, accused of murdering his father has been given until tomorrow to testify. The unnamed teenager appeared before a prosecutor yesterday as tens of his neighbors gathered outside the office to express their support for the 19-year-old. The young man was arrested late on Friday after telling police that he stabbed his father during an argument and that he held the 54-year-old responsible for his mother’s death. Bank embezzlement An employee of ATEbank in Lamia, central Greece, has been suspended because he allegedly embezzled thousands of euros from colleagues and customers, bank officials said yesterday. The money was discovered to be missing during an audit by staff from the bank’s headquarters in Athens. Officials did not reveal the exact amount that has allegedly been embezzled as their internal investigation is continuing. Ancient coins Two men have been arrested after a police search unearthed dozens of ancient coins and a tombstone column from their Thessaloniki homes and from a car belonging to one of them, officers said yesterday. Police confiscated a total of 122 bronze and silver coins.
