Ex-defense minister released after testifying over house in Syros

Former socialist defense minister Yiannos Papantoniou was allowed to walk on Monday after giving his testimony to an investigative magistrate regarding the purchase and sale of the house belonging to him and his wife on the Aegean island of Syros in 2016.

According to the indictment, the sale of the couple’s house was allegedly fictitious in order to launder money allegedly received as bribes during his term as defense minister in 2003. Papantoniou spent 17 months from October 2018 until April 2020 in pre-trial detention on money laundering charges.

Papantoniou has dismissed all the charges as a “legally unsubstantiated,” claiming it is part of a plan for the “political and moral extermination of opponents” of the main opposition party implemented by the previous government “to facilitate its consolidation in power.”