The president of Greek Ecologists, Dimosthenis Vergis was sentenced to 37 years and six months imprisonment without parole by the Three Member Criminal Court for the encroachment of thousands of square meters of forest land near Lake Marathon. In addition, the Greek Ecologists president, who was absent, but represented in court, must also pay a 150,000 euro fine.
As of today, police have started searching for Vergis who has gone missing. N. Papakostas, former forest inspector in Penteli, Athens and Mr. Katogiannakis were also sentenced to 14 years imprisonment and a fine of 5,000 euros and 10 years imprisonment and a fine of 3,000 euros respectively. They were both set free on parole until their court date.
E. Drakakis, a tax office employee and executive of the Eastern Attica Property Agency and Mr. Vlachos were found innocent.
The encroachment case file concerns a total of 452,000 square meter property in Agios Stefanos which Vergis had been trying to claim part of. However, according to the case file, the property which was estimated to cost more than 8 million euros, was part of the local forest land and in addition it belonged to the Greek State, even though the accused argues that the state had no claim over the land.
Dimosthenis Vergis appears to have created “non-existent property rights” and also forged documents to prove that the land was not in fact part of the forest land. The other defendants are accused of creating the forged documents which were used in a court case against the Greek State in 1999 by Vergis, who was claiming the 42,800 square meter property.
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