Vatopedi case before House
Parliament is due to convene tomorrow to vote on whether to indict five former ministers over their alleged roles in the exchange of public property with land owned by the Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos. A parliamentary investigation was concluded last month into claims that government officials set up the real estate deal to favor the monastery, at the expense of taxpayers. The PASOK deputies on the committee recommended that five conservative ministers – former State Minister and government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos, former Public Order Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis, former Deputy Economy and Finance Minister Petros Doukas, former Agriculture Minister Evangelos Basiakos and his deputy Alexandros Kontos – be brought to trial. For this to happen, more than half of the MPs (at least 151 of 300) must vote to indict the alleged offenders. The vote is likely to take place just after midnight tomorrow.
