Former OPEKEPE president Dimitris Melas and the Organization’s former director, Alexandra Reppa, were found guilty by the court of the misdemeanors of harboring an offender and breach of duty, in a case linked to the failure to forward a critical report to prosecutorial authorities.
Particular significance is attached to the development regarding the charge of misappropriation/removal of a document, namely the concealment of a document with the intent to harm a third party. The court ruled that the act should not be examined as a misdemeanor, but as a felony, as it allegedly caused damages exceeding €120,000. For this reason, the part of the case concerning the misappropriation/removal of a document is being referred for trial before the Three-Member Felony Court of Appeal.
Each of them was sentenced to 5 years and 8 months in prison, suspended, while at the same time they were banned from leaving the country, a measure that will remain in force until the separate case concerning the misappropriation/removal of a document, which is pending as a felony, is tried.
Until the trial of the case concerning the misappropriation/removal of a document, they were banned from leaving the country.
At the center of the case is the report by employee Paraskevi Tycheropoulou, which, according to the evidence assessed, contained findings regarding false declarations, “red-flagged” tax identification numbers, and possible illegal payments of agricultural subsidies from the National Reserve. The defendants allegedly failed in 2020 to forward this material to the judiciary, even though it could have led to further investigation of possible irregularities.
“After a months-long hearing process, the court was convinced that it was proven that in 2018 there was a striking increase in the number of pasturelands, as the defendant Athanasia Reppa had also pointed out, while there were suspicions of systematic fraud and the channeling of funds through mechanisms to producers. In this environment, the then-new president of OPEKEPE, Grigoris Varras, took office and ordered an audit, under which Paraskevi Tycheropoulou recorded her findings and submitted a report. In this environment, and with knowledge of the problems that indicate awareness on the part of Melas and Reppa, the two defendants, according to the court’s judicial conviction, failed to carry out the actions they were required to perform,” the presiding judge said when announcing the decision.
Sources: Kathimerini, Efimerida ton Sintakton
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