The former minister won’t even come for an apology Nikos Pappaswho is under investigation Special Courtbecause, according to his lawyers, he “will apologize for us.” The minister, who is on trial for dereliction of duty in relation to his handling of a television license case, has not appeared in court since the start of the trial, saying his prosecution is political in nature.

Nikos Pappas’ failure to appear even for an apology leaves open the position that his co-defendant businessman Christos Kalogritsas will take, as his lawyers have reserved their client’s decision to inform the court.

And while a series of revelations in the trial has ignited a political confrontation in the last few days, all indications are that a new cycle of witnesses will begin, both from the former minister and through his lawyers Giannis Mantzouranis, Evangelos Georgakopoulos and Theodoros. Mantas demanded to be called in and questioned by Mr. Kalogritsa’s son, Ioannis Vladimiros, who was also personally involved in the tender for television licenses. Court prosecutor Olga Smyrlis granted the petition, but the court upheld its decision. However, in the event that the request is accepted, Kalogritsa’s side, through lawyers for businessman Andreas Loverdos and Angelos Karahalios, signaled that they would comply with requests to call new witnesses, stating that they would at least require three to be named.

Otherwise, yesterday’s trial was conducted with many hours of testimony from publisher and journalist Kostas Vaksevanis, who claimed that the minister under investigation, Nikos Pappas, “did not give orders to Christos Kalogritsa, and he did not hear from the businessman that he received such orders.” from Mr Papa. The journalist also confirmed Giannis Sturnaras’ statement in this regard, according to which the Documento newspaper did not get a single euro from the three million guarantee for the competition with television licenses. On this occasion, there was also confirmation from Deputy Prosecutor Dimitris Asprogerakas, who asked the witness about this if he knew the background of the three million, adding: “one more thing that you didn’t get in Documento.”

However, there were moments of tension during the journalist’s testimony, and the conclusion of his many hours of testimony was that Nikos Pappas did not give orders to Christos Kalogritsa and, according to the witness, did not violate official duties.