LETTER FROM ATHENS
In Greece, the acquittal on appeal of former officials of the German company Siemens, who were prosecuted in one of the biggest corruption cases, has caused a stir. The case dates back to the late 1990s, when the country's telephone network was being modernized. Inflated contracts were signed between Siemens and the public electricity company, and bribes were distributed to managers of the German company and also to Greek politicians. According to officials from Siemens' Greek subsidiary, 130 million Deutschmarks was paid out. In 2011, in the midst of the economic crisis, a parliamentary commission of inquiry estimated that the scandal had cost the country an estimated €2 billion.
On Monday, September 26, after 16 years of proceedings and numerous postponements, the Athens Court of Appeal acquitted 20 people who had initially been sentenced to 15 years in prison for corruption in 2019. Even the former head of the Greek subsidiary of Siemens, Michalis Christophorakos – who had fled to Germany at the beginning of the investigation – did not receive any sentence. The reason? The statute of limitations has expired.
The resulting uproar from the media was immediate. The left-wing weekly Documento called the acquittal a "provocation," saying that Greeks had endured many austerity measures during the crisis due in part to all the corruption cases that had been costly to the Greek state. The center-right newspaper Kathimerini highlighted "the bitter taste" left by the case and "the inability of the political and judicial system to complete a 16-year investigation." The center-right daily Ta Nea noted that "a case that has occupied public opinion and shaken the Greek political scene is being hastily closed and swept under the 'rug of the statute of limitations.'"
'Feeling of injustice is everywhere'
Surprised by this acquittal, the prosecutor of Greece's Supreme Court, Isidoros Dogiakos, ordered a preliminary investigation to determine the reasons for the slowness of the procedure that led to the lapse.
On News247, columnist Yannis Albanis said that "in Greece, the elite thinks that citizens are so resigned or so cynical (or both) that they will not react." However, on social media, the anger of many Greeks instantly exploded: "Is this justice? A washing machine [that] whitewashes Christophorakos and the other accused!" said one Twitter user. "We live in a country where you go to jail for nothing and where, when you steal from the state, you are praised," added another.
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