Nikos Zigras, a defendant and witness against his cousin, former Greek defense minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos, who is being tried for money laundering and corruption charges, told him to step up and just confess and “apologize to the world.”
“We are grown men,” Zigras said, urging Tsochatzopoulos to take responsibility for what his cousin has testified to is the former minister’s glaring guilt in the case. Zigras said that, “Fourteen years ago, when your new family was partying with the dirty money, I went to hell” and added that never set foot in the luxury apartment beneath the Acropolis “which destroyed” Tsochatzopoulos and was confiscated by the government.
The owner of the well-known Ianos bookstore, Nikos Karatzas, another defendant, claimed that the former Minister deceived him and was behind a scheme to launder money that got him involved.
Karatzas explained that in 2005, when his relationship with Tsochatzopoulos began, ship owners were on an “investment spree” and that even though he noticed an “annoyed and aggressive” disposition in 2009, he did not suspect anything.
Presiding judge Christos Katsianis quizzed Karatzas about the questionable business practices in his involvement with Tsochatzopoulos and a group of ship owners. Karatzas admitted that he made criminal mistakes but no criminal offenses.
Tsochatzopoulos insisted that his wife Vicky Stamati, also on trial, was unaware of anything and she’s being persecuted only because she’s his wife. He has denied all wrongdoing to all the charges and said he is completely innocent.
He said that the purchase of a luxury apartment on Dionisiou Areopagitou Street was “legal and above board and entirely unrelated to (money) laundering.” He said he was solely responsible for the family’s financial activities.
Stamati maintained that she was a “dependent wife” who could “not possibly have known” anything regarding the charges she and her husband are facing. Stamati’s defense was focused on presenting herself as a tormented mother who has unjustly been separated from her son.
Deputy Prosecutor Panagiotis Panagiotopoulos interrupted the testimony to state that her defense refers to antiquated perceptions of family from the 1950’s and 1960’s, where the husband arranges for everything while the wife is kept in the dark.
Tsochatzopoulos’ accountant, Froso Lampropoulou, also testified that he’s a liar. She said she helped him hide behind companies set up to hide where money stolen from defense constracts was going. She said that her co-defendant Talita-Maria Tsekour begged her to change her testimony and not incriminate anyone.
Another defendant, Yannis Sbokos, asked to be judged “humanely,” and accepted the charges against him and that he wants to “make up” for his crimes against Greece.
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