With the acquittal of all defendants, including Lefteris KRETSOSwho served as Secretary General of Information during the competition for television licensesYesterday the criminal court of Athens was held in the composition of three people.

The court acquitted, by accepting the appropriate prosecutorial proposal, both Mr. Kretsos and the members of the commission responsible for checking the conditions for the participation of interested persons, as well as son of businessman Christ Kalogritsa, Ioannis Vladimiroswho took part in the tender process, but could not stay in it, as it was not possible to meet the necessary financial requirements.

In total, the court had to acquit all six defendants, as it was decided that the court session did not prove that they had committed any crime during the preliminary work on the tender process.

The six defendants present, with the exception of Ioannis Vladimiros Kalogritsa, who was charged with moral complicity in the crime of false testimony, apologized and denied the accusations. Former secretary-general for information, Mr. Kretsos, defended the legality of the committee’s actions regarding the tender for television licenses, denying – and himself – the allegation against him and arguing that nothing illegal had been committed. The decision to acquit the defendants was prompted by a statement by Mr. Kretso’s lawyer, Yiannis Mantsuranis, who spoke of “defending them and defending democracy.”

The TV license competition trial that ended yesterday does not affect the substance of the case, which is being heard in the Special Court involving former minister Nikos Papp and businessman Christos Kalogrits. The special court considers the businessman’s complaints that he participated in the competition on the orders of the former minister, although he himself did not have the financial means for the then government to acquire a channel of its own influence.