‘No doubt’ over hospital bribe, says prosecutor

An Athens court is due to decide next month whether to convict the former director of the Aglaia Kyriakou Children’s Hospital after a prosecutor recommended Tuesday that he be found guilty of blackmail and bribery.

The former hospital executive, Haris Tombouloglou, is accused of demanding a 25,000-euro bribe from a marketing firm that won a European Union-funded contract to help put together an awareness campaign about child obesity.

Tombouloglou allegedly threatened to declare the tender void if he did not receive the under-the-table payment.

The prosecutor said there was “no doubt” about Tombolouglou’s guilt.

Upon his arrest on Christmas Eve in 2013, the suspect claimed that the money in question had been a “gift” for the hospital.