OPEKEPE: European Prosecutor seeks conviction of all 22 defendants in Crete

The prosecutor has recommended that 22 individuals, most of whom were active in Crete, be found guilty as charged in yet another trial linked to European funds granted through OPEKEPE.

Delegated European Prosecutor Dionysis Mouzakis asked the court to convict all of the defendants, arguing that the land parcels declared either belonged to the State or to third parties, and not to the 16 defendants who presented them as their own in applications submitted to OPEKEPE.

“All of the first 16 defendants submitted false declarations to OPEKEPE, given that the persons listed as owners of the land did not in fact own those parcels. It was not established that the land presented as privately owned or leased was actually owned by the lessors; instead, it belonged either to the State or to third parties,” he said.

At another point in his closing argument, he stressed that the defendants in question had not carried out agricultural activity and therefore were not entitled to receive subsidies:

“The land was located very far from their places of residence, and it was not established that they had transported their livestock to the areas where the leased plots were supposedly located or that they had carried out the required agricultural work. In my view, the guilt of all 22 defendants, as charged, has been fully proven,” the prosecutor concluded.

The defence lawyers will now deliver their closing arguments, after which the court will issue its ruling.