In Brief
Siemens scandal
Magistrate issues third warrant for Christoforakos’s arrest Greece has issued a third international arrest warrant for former Siemens Hellas CEO Michalis Christoforakos, who is fighting his extradition to Greece from Germany. The new warrant is significant in that it requests Christoforakos’s extradition for alleged crimes committed between 2004 and 2007, which means that they are not yet subject to the statute of limitations. Christoforakos is accused of defrauding the Greek state over the deal for the C4I surveillance system for the Athens Olympics in 2004. The warrant was issued by magistrate Nikos Zagorianos, who is standing down after being charged with mishandling the investigation into the bribery scandal. Soccer sacking Olympiakos dismisses Ketsbaia Soccer champion Olympiakos announced yesterday it has parted ways with Georgian manager Temuri Ketsbaia, who spent just over three months at the team helm. Serb scouter Bozidar Bandovic, assisted by Andreas Niniadis, will be in charge of the team in tonight’s opening match for the Champions League against Dutch side AZ Alkmaar at home (at 9.45 p.m.). Several European coaches have been named by the Greek press as likely successors, including Spaniard Quique Sanchez Flores. Shoe thrower The Iraqi television reporter jailed for throwing his shoes at former US President George W. Bush is to visit Greece for medical treatment to counter the side effects of injections he is alleged to have been given while in prison, the reporter’s cousin said yesterday, following the man’s release. Muntazer al-Zaidi had been behind bars since his attack last December on Bush during a press conference in Iraq. «Muntazer will go to Greece for medical treatment, because he was injected with unknown chemical drugs and suffers from a continuous headache,» al-Zaidi’s cousin said yesterday. FYROM The president of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Gjorge Ivanov, has claimed that Athens does not really want a solution to the dispute over his country’s name, despite ongoing negotiations between Greek and FYROM officials. «There is no legal provision that Greece can resort to to oblige [FYROM] to accept the stance of Athens,» Ivanov was quoted as saying by FYROM’s Dnevnik newspaper. Ivanov noted that Greece’s ties with FYROM are generally good and claimed that the name dispute was being perpetuated by the «political elite.» Store raid An armed man held up a branch, in northeastern Athens, of the Promitheftiki supermarket chain shortly after 12.30 p.m. yesterday, fleeing with an undetermined sum. The young robberthreatened the store cashiers into emptying the registers and made his getaway before police arrived. Child porn A 39-year-old man yesterday faced a prosecutor on charges of trading in child pornography over the Internet after police found images allegedly depicting the sexual abuse of children on the hard drive of his computer and on his cell phone. The suspect was also charged with illegal arms possession after police found two pistols, a stun gun, a switchblade and a pair of handcuffs in his home.
