Stamati freed but lawyer says she can’t pay bail

After three years in jail for money laundering, a court hearing an appeal for early release from former Defense Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos’s wife, Viki Stamati, ruled in her favor on several conditions on Wednesday, including that she post 50,000 euros in bail.

But Stamati’s lawyer, Frangiskos Ragousis, indicated that his 52-year-old client did not currently have the cash to post bail and would need two months to collect it.

Other terms for her release include a ban on her leaving the country and regular visits to her local police precinct.

The prosecutor initially proposed setting the bail payment at 70,000 euros, prompting Stamati to leave the courtroom in tears and Ragousis to complain.

“They are in dire straits,” he told the court of her family.

“They can’t even scrape together 3,000 euros. They survive in prison due to donations of 10 and 20 euros by friends.”

The court decision followed six unsuccessful appeals by Stamati, who has served much of her sentence in a psychiatric hospital for treatment for depression.