



A former Greek minister should be found guilty of money laundering, a court heard on Monday.

Tasos Mandelis, a former socialist transport minister, was found guilty of money laundering in the Siemens kickbacks case, and was handed an eight-year suspended sentence in July last year.

The case is now in the Athens appeal court.

Judges had initially ruled that Mandelis had received 450,000 German marks as a bribe for a contract signed with the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE) in 1997 when Mandelis was minister in PASOK’s government.

Siemens Hellas former executive Ilias Georgiou was also found guilty of money laundering and bribery as well as Mandelis’ associate Aristidis Mantas for assistance in money laundering.

The prosecutor on Monday also called for Georgiou to be found guilty.

Georgiou faced a 12-year suspended sentence while Mantelis received eight years.

Allegations that Greek politicians and political parties received bribes during successive administrations to grant German industrial giant Siemens lucrative contracts in the run-up to the 2004 Olympics, have dominated local media for years.



