Vatopedi inquiry findings delivered
A succession of New Democracy and PASOK ministers should be held politically responsible for failing to properly check documents that led to the state handing valuable property to the Vatopedi Monastery, according to the report compiled by conservative deputies. After a month-and-a-half of questioning witnesses, the MPs on the parliamentary committee investigating the land swap submitted their reports to Parliament yesterday. Each party represented on the committee compiled its own report. New Democracy MPs suggested that three of its ministers had not exercised appropriate insight but that PASOK ministers had also been guilty of the same offense. The Socialists went much further in their report, as they claim that a number of current and former government ministers, consisting of Evangelos Basiakos, Petros Doukas, Alexandros Kontos, Giorgos Voulgarakis and Theodoros Roussopoulos, should face criminal charges. The Socialists claim the land swap cost Greek taxpayers as much as 1 billion euros. The three other parties, the Communists, the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) and the Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS), refer to political, rather than criminal, offenses.
