Defense Ministry’s ex-official has prison sentence reduced

A former head of arms procurements at the Defense Ministry, Yiannis Sbokos, convicted in a cash-for-contracts scandal that also saw ex-minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos jailed for 20 years, on Friday welcomed a court decision reducing his sentence by half. 

After hearing the decision slashing his jail time from 16 years to eight, Sbokos said that he had never been part of Tsochatzopoulos’s inner circle and had never served as his “henchman” or “cashier.”