Top judge backed over stock claims
Greece’s top judge was fully backed by the government yesterday as he denied allegations that his son had illegally profited from questionable stock-market transactions. Supreme Court President Romylos Kedikoglou said that his family had «nothing to hide.» The ruling conservatives insisted that the judge was cooperating fully with the Justice Ministry, which is looking into the claims that were prompted by PASOK MPs submitting questions about the wealth of Kedikoglou’s son. Following the fallout of the recent bonds scandal, PASOK has focused its attention on allegations that the son of the Supreme Court president built up a -1.8-million fortune thanks to suspicious stock market investments. Kedikoglou insisted yesterday that the claims were unfounded. «I could ignore the newspaper stories and the questions from MPs and reply that it is a private matter and leave it at that,» Kedikoglou told Kathimerini. «But I have nothing to hide, nor does my son, because any transactions he made are legal and clean.» Kedikoglou has sent a file of all his son’s financial details, tax declarations and property contracts to Justice Minister Anastassis Papaligouras so they can be investigated further. The paperwork shows that Kedikoglou’s son, Phaedon, earned -294,920 between 1999 and 2005 and only a small percentage of this came from share trading, Kathimerini understands. «Someone is waging a war against me with data that is inaccurate,» the judge said. Government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos said that all the information requested by PASOK MPs in connection to the allegations had been handed over by the prosecutor. Roussopoulos said that the Justice Ministry had no plans to conduct a more in-depth investigation. PASOK’s spokesman for justice matters, Alekos Papadopoulos, said that it was not up to Roussopoulos to judge whether the data supplied by Kedikoglou was sufficient.
