After shocking photographs of the condition of Olympic Venues traveled the world Greek prosecutors moved to bring criminal mismanagement charges against a former official responsible for the post-Olympic use of costly venues. Constantinos Matalas, former head of the now-defunct public Olympic Properties S.A.(Olympiaka Akinita), could face 5 to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors Sotiris Bougioukas and Eleni Siskou also asked Parliament to lift the immunity of New Democracy deputy Dionysis Stamenitis, Mr. Matalas’ successor, who will face the same charges. Mr. Stamenitis denies the accusations and says that three venues had found new uses while numerous initiatives had been launched.

The charges were brought against Mr. Matalas this week after an eight-month investigation into a 10-billion-euro shorfall in state finances benchmarked for the project.

There had been a great deal of criticism for the Olympic projects during their construction when Greece hosted the 2004 Games after a last-minute scramble to complete them on time. Disapproval soared in 2010 when the games were blamed, amongst other things, for the country being on the verge of bankruptcy.