NEWS

In Brief

NO BONDING

Ex-prosecutor hits back at critic over structured bond probe Former Supreme Court prosecutor Giorgos Sanidas yesterday accused the former head of Greece’s anti-money-laundering committee, Giorgos Zorbas, of lying to a parliamentary committee about his probe into the alleged corrupt sale of a structured government bond to pension funds. Zorbas reportedly told the panel of MPs that he had found evidence of several crimes being committed and money being paid into the bank accounts of political parties. However, he accused the judiciary and Sanidas in particular of blocking further inquiry. «There is no end to Mr Zorbas’s lying,» was Sanidas’s response yesterday. The retired prosecutor denied having had any contact with Zorbas, let alone dismissing his requests for assistance. SHIP COMPLAINT Diplomatic demarche to Ankara The Foreign Ministry yesterday filed an official complaint with Ankara concerning the presence of two Turkish vessels in the Aegean in Greece’s continental shelf area. The Cesme and Piri Reis, which Turkey insists are marine research ships, have not entered Greek territorial waters but have sailed over areas in which Greece maintains oil and mineral rights. It is the first time since 1975 that two Turkish vessels have sailed over Greece’s continental shelf. Airport protests Air-traffic controllers carried out a work-to-rule protest yesterday, causing delays for a number of flights as they observed strict limits on the number of airplanes that could be in Greek air space at any given time. The controllers are demanding better wages and the hiring of more staff but the government has said that it cannot meet their demands. The civil servants said that they would hold rolling 24-hour strikes as of Sunday, although such action by air-traffic controllers is usually deemed illegal in court and prevented from going ahead. ISAP disruption The section of the Kifissia-Piraeus electric railway (ISAP) between the Attiki and Monastiraki stations will close as of Monday for engineering work, it was announced yesterday. It is not known how long the work will take. ISAP passengers are advised to use lines 2 and 3 of the metro to travel between Attiki and Monastiraki. Standoff ends A suspected burglar who abducted a woman on Tuesday evening and then took refuge in a Patra apartment block to avoid arrest was captured in the early hours of yesterday morning when police stormed the building after evacuating all the residents. The suspect, a foreign national, spent more than seven hours holed up in the apartment block. He had earlier released the woman he had taken hostage. Shots were fired when officers searched the apartment block but nobody was injured. Mayoral candidates Winemaker Yiannis Boutaris yesterday announced his intention to run for mayor of Thessaloniki in November’s local elections. The businessman from northern Greece has stood as a candidate before and said that he would be running as an independent again this year. Former minister Stelios Papathemelis also declared yesterday that he would be a candidate in the mayoral race.

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