Excerpts from the diary of the secretary of businessman Christos Kalogritz, who is on trial at the Special Court along with a former minister Nikos Pappapresented the businessman’s defense as a follow-up to what she testified when she was questioned at trial as a witness.

From the diary of Ethalia Diamantis, who testified about “envelopes and bags of money from the office of Kalogritsa for the SYRIZA party”, there are records of meetings of the former minister Nikos Pappus in the office of Kalogritsa with the defendant businessman, as well as the lawyer Artemis Artemiou.

In particular, according to Kalogritsa’s lawyer Angelos Karahalios, the businessman’s secretary has two entries in his diary for September 2016.

According to these records, there were two meetings, always in the office of Christos Kalogritsa, one on the 15th of the month and one on the 22nd of September between Nikos Pappa and the lawyer Artemis Artemiou for the first time, while the second meeting between the Pope and Artemiou was also present himself Kalogritsas.

In fact, the second meeting of the trinity (Papas, Kalogritsa, Artemiou) is recorded on the day of Mr. Kalogritsa’s meeting with the shipowner Vangelis Marinakis to finance a TV license tender project.

Objections from dad for fake texts

On behalf of the lawyers of former Minister Nikos Pappas, lawyer Yiannis Mantsuranis filed objections to the court against text messages (SMS) provided by Christos Kalogritsa with electronic dialogues between the businessman and Nikos Pappas.

The objection, according to Yannis Mantsuranis, concerns a violation of the protection of personal data, since the messages were sent without the consent of one of the interlocutors, namely Nikos Pappas.

In addition, however, the objection also concerns the forgery of these messages, since, as Mr. Mantsuranis mentioned, “if someone has someone’s mobile phone, he can send as many messages as he wants.” In fact, Nikos Pappa’s lawyer added that “the reports are fake and falsified. Someone had a hand in this.”

For this, an expert opinion from the office of Dimitrios Kalatsis i Son was presented in support of the opinion that it is easy to “carry on” dialogues between interlocutors from mobile phones.

Controversial meetings

Details about the intervention of the lawyer Christos Kalogrits Angelos Karahalios, who presented excerpts from the diary of the businessman’s secretary at the trial.

“I would like to present two more important facts regarding the testimony of Ms. Diamantis, as well as the historical SMS dated November 15, 2016, which was not ignored by the press and the political world. I directly link this to the content of Diamanti’s testimony and to this report, because the question of her credibility was raised, she was called dishonorable, a perjurer and a slanderer. A diary kept by Kalogritsa’s secretary for forty years, of which we will present excerpts for two days on September 15 and 22, 2016. Ms. Diamanti testified that Mr. Artemiou met with the Pope and Kalogritsa at the offices of Kalogritsa. The same witness reported that on September 22, 2016, Christos Kalogritsas met with Mr. Marinakis. And on 15/9 there was a meeting with Artemiu in the office of the Kalogritsa company, but also on 22-9 a meeting between Papa Kalogritsa and Artemiou, after a meeting with Marinaki and in the evening a meeting between Kalogritsa and Mr. Papa.

In particular, entries in Diamanti’s diary.

09/15/2016: Artemiou (in the office of Kalogritsa) -14.25-15.00
22.9.2016: Pappas and Artemiou (at Kalogrits office) -13.25-23.45
09/22/2016: Marinakis (in Piraeus) -21.00 – 21.30
9/22/2016: Pappas (at Kalogritz’s office) -22.15-22.4

Tension in court

Andreas Loverdu’s lawyer told the court of his client’s intention to present his mobile phone in person to prove that Nikos Papp’s text messages are genuine, adding that when they were never interrogated by an MP from any party during the Parliament’s preliminary inquiry.

In particular, Mr. Loverdos also stressed. “I remind you that the parliament gave its opinion in July 2021. Now we have 2023.
Mr. Pappas has heard about these text messages since 2016, when the competition was held, and did not react in any way. He never said they were fake etc.
Did his lawyers skip years and present such evidence to the authorities? He never asked them questions. He had to request information from Electronic Crime, turn to experts, etc. They did not say a word in so many years. He left parliament and went to the investigator. I can’t accept that the five text messages that found our arguments and used them are now insulting them. We brought the sixth text here, we brought it to reinforce our arguments. We did not contribute the rest, because the principal told us to limit ourselves to what was necessary. From the diary of Mr. Kalogritsa’s secretary, one can see the accuracy of the SMS. This page proves that the meeting with Artemios took place. Kalogritsas puts his mobile phone at your disposal. Responsibility lies with the party that dared to say that this is a fake. I’m saying this from now on, if all the talk gets out, we won’t be held responsible. I didn’t believe it when I read them. I have a lot of experience in politics and I can’t believe a former minister wrote this.”