Tsochatzopoulos' Conviction Landmark Case for Greece

ATHENS - The 20-year prison sentence issued to former Defence Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos by an Athens court is a clear sign that Greece is taking firm steps to end corruption, experts said. 'No matter how high ranking one might have been, officials can no longer feel safe when they break the law,' Antonis Klapsis, head of research for the Konstandinos Karamanlis Institute for Democracy in Athens, told Southeast European Times. Klapsis said the sentence is a clear sign the Greek government is genuinely determined to fight corruption. 'It was the first time in years that a former minister was prosecuted for receiving money under the table,' he said. The court convicted Tsochatzopoulos of money laundering - estimated at up to 1 billion euros - and masterminding a scheme to steal from defence contracts during his tenure from 1996 to 2001. He was also accused of accepting bribes to award the contracts but the bribery charges were past the statute of limitations for a former minister.

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