The indictments for 14 people to stand trial over the Vatopedi Monastery land deal case were upheld on Friday by the Greek Supreme Court. More specifically, the court rejected a Supreme Court deputy prosecutor’s reversal of the indictments, which had been issued by a criminal appeals court.

The 14 persons include Vatopedi Monastery Abbot Ephraim, monk Arsenios, notary Aikaterini Peleki, lawyers Dionysis and Dimitrios Pelekis, former head of the Hellenic Public Real Estate Company (KED) Petros Papageorgiou, KED board member Constantinos Gratsios, former director of KED’s real estate management service Georgios Mitropoulos, former agriculture ministry general secretary Constantinos Skiadas and former head of the rural development ministry Stamatoula Madeli.

Land deal scandal

In September 2008, the monastery of Vatopedi was implicated in an alleged real estate scandal. More specifically, it is being accused of trading low-value land for high-value state property in a deal with the New Democracy government. The cost to the state is believed to have been at least €100 million.