In Brief
POLICE SHOOTING
Cretan suspect given more time to prepare his defense A 32-year-old Cretan farmer, charged in connection with an ambush at a cannabis plantation near Iraklion that left three police officers injured, has been given until tomorrow to prepare his testimony for a magistrate investigating the case. The suspect denies any connection with the incident, which occured on June 23 in the area of Malades in Iraklion prefecture not far from his home. A senior police officer, who was injured in the raid and is the only person who saw the assailant, said the 32-year-old was not the gunman. SALES BEGIN Official discounts start today Summer sales officially begin today in Athens retail stores, despite the fact that many had already begun to offer discounts. The official sales season runs until August 30. For any complaints, shoppers should call the General Secretariat for Consumer Affairs on 1520. Bankers cleared The former director of ATEbank, Petros Lambrou, and nine other former employees of the bank were yesterday cleared on appeal of acting in bad faith when they approved a loan to a group of companies that already owed 190 million euros to ATE. The 10 suspects had been given jail sentences of between one and three years in the initial trial. Hearing delayed The former head of the financial crimes squad, Spyros Kladas, was yesterday given an additional 48 hours to prepare to face prosecutor Maria Gane in connection with claims that he had approached journalist Makis Triantafyllopoulos via MP Costas Koukodimos last year to ask for his name not be mentioned in the Proto Thema newspaper in connection with the investigation into the alleged blackmail of former Culture Ministry general secretary Christos Zachopoulos. Kladas denies seeking favors from the journalist. Prosecutors protest The union representing the country’s judges and prosecutors yesterday expressed its «extreme indignation» at a poster published by the main opposition party PASOK suggesting that judges are in cahoots with the government. The central slogan on the poster asks: «Who is being protected by the government, and its prosecutors?» The union dismissed the slogan as «clearly misguided and unfortunate,» noting that «its abstract and general nature offends the judiciary as a whole.» Fires doused A large fire that burnt some 600 hectares of thick pine forest on the island of Skyros over the weekend had been brought under control by yesterday afternoon, according to the local fire brigade. Fires that broke out on Sunday on Salamina, off Piraeus, and in Halkida, had been partly brought under control by yesterday afternoon. A fire that began in Keratea, southeastern Attica, yesterday was quickly doused. Bad food A stricter crackdown at border entry points over the past three months has resulted in the confiscation of dozens of tons of food unfit for human consumption, including more than 90 kilos of fish and seafood from Turkey and a further 100 kilos of seafood products from Asia and Panama, Agricultural Development and Food Minister Alexandros Kontos said yesterday.
