Supreme court clears Psomiadis over breach of faith, upholds dereliction of duty conviction

The Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared former Central Macedonia Governor Panayiotis Psomiadis of breach of faith in relation to an incident some eight years ago but upheld his conviction for dereliction of duty, which led to him having to stand down from his post.

Psomiadis was convicted after being found guilty of reducing the fines imposed on a series of firms in Thessaloniki between 2008 and 2009 when he was the northern port city’s prefect.

The former New Democracy official appealed his original sentence but only managed to reduce his suspended jail sentence from 11 months to eight. He then took his appeal to the Supreme Court.

Psomiadis has recently been linked to the possible creation of a new nationalist party.