In Brief
PROPERTY PENALTIES
No Athenian has yet declared illegally altered parts of homes No homeowner in Athens has yet submitted any paperwork to take advantage of the government’s recent legislation on illegally altered parts of homes, which allows people to exempt them from further penalties or the threat of demolition by declaring the spaces themselves and paying a fee. Town-planning offices have been ready to accept applications for the past two weeks but it seems that homeowners have not rushed to volunteer for the penalty. «People are coming to find out the details or get the documents they need to fill in,» said Yiannis Gavrilakis, the director of the Athens Prefecture town-planning department’s southern section. CHILD PORN British biologist detained Officers of Attica’s electronic crimes unit yesterday were questioning a 39-year-old British biologist conducting research at the Academy of Athens after allegedly finding him in possession of pornographic photographs and videos featuring children. Officers confiscated a computer and two hard drives featuring hundreds of images. Korydallos blast There were reports late last night that an explosive device had gone off near Korydallos Prison in southwestern Athens. There were no initial reports of casualties but many windows in the area were smashed by the force of the explosion. Reports suggested that the device had been planted in a dumpster near the jail. Slander trial The trial of three journalists being sued for slander by former Minister of State Theodoros Roussopoulos began in Athens yesterday. Roussopoulos is seeking 300,000 euros each from Giorgos Aftias, Giorgos Vlachos and Yiannis Daskas for the moral damages he claims to have suffered due to comments – linking him to the Vatopedi land swap scandal – made by the three journalists during a program on private television channel Alpha in October 2008. Psomiadis suits A group of 157 investors in Aspis Capital, the investment arm of the Aspis Pronia Life Insurance firm have lodged legal suits against Pavlos Psomiadis, the president of the latter institution, seeking the confiscation of his assets to the tune of 15.5 million euros. A court is expected to rule on the appeals today. Psomiadis and his assistant Andreas Loizos face charges of supplying the company’s creditors with a false 550-million-euro letter of guarantee from a British bank in order to keep the business afloat. Drug arrests Police in Kavala, northern Greece, yesterday were questioning two Albanian men after finding more than 15 kilos of cannabis in their car and in a second vehicle that had been parked in central Thessaloniki. The two men are alleged to have been dealing in cannabis in the prefecture of eastern Macedonia. Robber thwarted A would-be robber who held up a Hellenic Post branch in the Cretan port of Iraklio yesterday was arrested shortly after the raid following a chase involving pedestrians and a police officer. It was unclear how much cash the robber had managed to net.
