Former Secretary General for Information and Communications Lefteris Kretsos and five members of the evaluation committee of the competition for television licenses in 2016.

Businessman Ioannis-Vladimiros Kalogritsas (son of Christos Kalogritsas), who was tried for moral complicity in the actions of others, was also unanimously found not guilty.

Accepting the prosecutor’s proposal, the court found the defendants not guilty, for whom the prosecutor’s conclusion was that they “did not prove any false incident” and that they did not act fraudulently in the case of guarantees provided by a businessman in the context of the contested tender.

“The Commission reached its decision with the specific means at its disposal at that particular moment in time. His mentor was Grant Thornton. He had assurances that in case of non-payment of the first installment, the company would be declared bankrupt, as it was,” the prosecutor’s office said, also emphasizing that: “There is no fraud on the part of the defendants. It has not been proven that they had information about the certification of deliberately false facts. The accused must be declared innocent.”

Apology of Lefteris Kretsos

Earlier, both L. Kretsos and the scientists who were members of the commission, in their apologies, stated that safety valves were provided for in the conditions of the competition and that the whole process was carried out as stipulated in the announcement.

“I have come to apologize out of respect for your court, but first of all I want to make it clear that I am proud, angry and burdened by what happened,” said the former secretary general for information and communications.

Mr. Kretsos said that in 2010 the Council of State ruled that the method of granting spectrum to TV stations was illegal.

“After 27 years of operating private TV stations, we were the first to grant licenses in Greece, as there was no such competition before. They provided a spectrum for specific interests. I am an academic. We had the will not to be like previous governments,” he added.

Addressing the accused members of the Commission, L. Kretsos said: “I am very sorry, because these people have been mistreated and had consequences in their professional lives. I chose them based on their academic background. The criteria were experience, competence, knowledge. Not related to party formations. The propaganda was too great, we had vested interests that did not want to change the situation. I didn’t check the data. I received a recommendation from a Committee that I trust, which I have seen working hard in collaboration with Grant Thornton. I had no doubts. We moved within the framework of the announcement. We had insurance applications to the State Council to terminate the competition, and this did not stop us. After 15 days, Mr. Kalogritsas must bring the money. The public interest was fully secured for us.”