In Brief
SIEMENS PROBE
Former technical director released after testifying A former Siemens Hellas executive, Dionysis Dendrinos, was released on bail yesterday after testifying in the ongoing bribery investigation. Dendrinos, a technical director, denied knowledge of the company’s alleged slush funds and said that Siemens Hellas had complied with its part of the deal to supply a 255-million-euro security and communications system, known as C41, for the 2004 Athens Olympics. Dendrinos must post 800,000 euros bail by June 26 and has been prohibited from leaving Greece. STREET SHOOTOUT Suspects chased on Patission St Police were involved in a shootout with two men on a motorcycle yesterday near central Patission Street. Officers said they started chasing the pair after they refused to stop at a police signal for a check. The motorcycle passenger is alleged to have turned and fired a gun at the car, prompting police to fire back. The motorcycle then crashed into another patrol car, which had been dispatched to block the fugitives. Both suspects fell to the ground and one fled. The other, a Georgian, was arrested and faced questioning yesterday. There were no reports of any serious injuries. Briton returns A British man who spent nearly three years in a Greek psychiatric hospital after jumping off a hotel balcony in Crete with his children in his arms, killing his son and injuring his daughter, flew back to Britain yesterday, two weeks after a Greek court decided to set him free. According to British press reports, John Hogan, 35, boarded a flight to the UK yesterday. Hogan had been convicted of the unlawful killing of his 6-year-old son Liam, but a Greek court overturned that conviction last month, accepting that Hogan had been temporarily insane at the time. Traders protest Shopkeepers in central Athens have pledged to cordon off Pireos Street as of today in protest at the growing activities of drug dealers in the area. According to the protesters, the presence of drug addicts in the area has increased, with many openly taking heroin in front of their stores. Landfill opens Garbage trucks yesterday morning started gathering thousands of tons of festering trash from the streets of Thessaloniki after residents who had been blocking a landfill in the city’s northern outskirts called off their protest. The residents said they had lifted their blockade of the Mavrorachi landfill «in a gesture of good will» after authorities pledged to boost inspections at the site to avert the alleged dumping there of toxic hospital waste. Child porn A 35-year-old man arrested on the Ionian island of Corfu over the weekend, after officers allegedly confiscated images of hardcore child pornography from his home, yesterday faced a prosecutor. The police force’s electronic crime squad believe him to be a member of a national ring trading in child porn. Officers said they are monitoring suspects in another 20 Greek cities. Armed robbery Two robbers, one armed with a submachine gun and another with a revolver, raided a branch of Emporiki Bank in the northern prefecture of Imathia and made off with an estimated 20,000 euros yesterday.
