Vatopedi sold land for millions

The Vatopedi Monastery, which was involved in a controversial land exchange with the state, sold some of the properties it received as part of the deal for 41 million euros earlier this year, Kathimerini discovered yesterday. The Mount Athos monastery obtained 19,000 square meters of land and eight buildings in the Athens Olympic Village, on the city’s northern outskirts, and a plot of 20,000 square meters with five buildings in Acharnes, also in the northern suburbs, as part of the exchange with the state. In a deal signed on March 27 of this year, a Cypriot offshore company, Noliden Limited, agreed to buy both properties for 41 million euros after winning an auction. Noliden had only been founded three months before the deal was concluded. The exchange of land between the state and the monastery is the subject of an investigation after a preliminary investigation found evidence to suggest that the public land handed over to Vatopedi had been significantly undervalued. Vatopedi has been active in the property market for a number of years. It was revealed yesterday that in 2001 it bought a 1,400-square-meter plot of land with a 1,800-square-meter office block on Kifissias Avenue in Maroussi, northern Athens, from the Babis Vovos construction firm. The building is currently being rented by a stockbrokerage firm. Since the probe into the land exchange began, the monastery’s assets have been frozen and the deal has been revoked. PASOK yesterday asked the government to submit to Parliament the results of the preliminary probe carried out by Supreme Court prosecutor Giorgos Sanidas, who provoked the opposition’s ire when he concluded that there was no evidence to show ministers had been complicit in the deal. PASOK also called on the government to amend the law to protect public property.