Following today’s testimonies regarding the illegal subsidies case involving OPEKEPE, the total number of those in pre-trial detention has risen to 13. Today, judicial authorities decided to remand three more individuals in custody.
After the first detention this morning of an occasional employee who allegedly submitted false information, two more defendants were sent to prison. However, the involved accountant was released with restrictive conditions after reportedly denying the charges and shifting responsibility to a colleague in his office. According to the accountant’s testimony, this specific person was the one who made changes to the E9 forms and corrected them immediately upon realizing the error. “From the very first moment, I presented all evidence to the authorities. I never filed agricultural declarations myself. Nothing illegal was found in my house, nor did I ever obtain money from the subsidies,” the defendant reportedly claimed.
The father of the alleged ringleader was also released with restrictive conditions. Among other things, he reportedly stated that he raised his children alone, working 40 years as a farmer, 15 hours a day. The defendant allegedly claimed he heard about his son’s alleged activities for the first time after his arrest and refuses to believe them.
OPEKEPE: “They assured me everything was legal,” defendant emphasizes
Another defendant who appeared as the owner of agricultural plots leased to network members categorically denied his involvement and maintained a negative stance regarding the charges. The defendant characterized his involvement in the case as unfair and claimed he trusted a broker to whom he gave his taxisnet codes to help him apply as a new farmer. “Without my knowledge, he falsely registered agricultural plots in my name.
They assured me everything was legal,” he reportedly claimed. The same line of denial was maintained by a farmer with four decades of experience in the Pella region, who allegedly made false declarations about land he supposedly leased. “For 40 years I’ve been cultivating 800 acres and living exclusively from the land,” he reportedly emphasized, also referring to a broker he approached to find additional land to increase production. “He showed me agricultural plots, I cultivated them normally and paid all expenses. I have provided all receipts and income-expense invoices, but they don’t seem to have been taken into account,” he reportedly stated. One defendant is in the hospital where the investigator and prosecutor will go to take his testimony.
