The Athens Single-Member Misdemeanor Court has issued its decision on the case of illegal agricultural subsidies obtained from OPEKEPE with 13 defendants from the Phthiotis region standing trial. The court found all 13 defendants guilty of misdemeanor charges (fraud and use of forged documents) and imposed prison sentences ranging from six months to 40 months (three years and four months), with appeals having suspensive effect for all defendants.
Read: OPEKEPE: The timeline of EU’s hefty fines on Greece – How we reached the “fire” penalties, the grazing lands and the “technical solution”
Four of the defendants received the mitigating factor of prior lawful conduct.
The court, adopting the prosecutor’s recommendation, decided to forward the trial proceedings to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate potential criminal liability of witnesses and defendants for offenses such as perjury, moral complicity in the preceding act, and false certification.
What the indictment stated
According to the indictment, 12 of those involved allegedly obtained total illegal benefits exceeding 440,000 euros, with subsidies received by each individual ranging from 13,000 to 91,000 euros. The 13th defendant is the former president of the Makryrachi agricultural cooperative. During his testimony, he claimed that the cooperative has legitimate grazing rights on the lands in question that were leased to some of the defendants since 1935, citing related decisions that, he said, confirm this.
The defendants deny the charges against them and maintain that they acted within the framework of the relevant circular, according to which neither agricultural production nor livestock was required to receive the subsidy, with the sole criterion being the maintenance of grazing lands in “good agricultural condition”.
