ANEL (Independent Greeks party) president Panos Kammenos, having Pavlos Chaikalis (the MP in question) by his side, has presented the completely “history” of the case, denouncing it as an attempt to bribe Pavlos Chaikalis in order to vote for the election of a President of the Republic.
Mr. Kammenos showed CDs and other material, in which are recorded conversations between Mr. Chaikalis and middle-man George Apostolopoulos, the latter being named as the man who tried to bribe the MP.
ANEL president Kammenos urged the government to publish the material themselves, through the Minister of Justice who already has it in their possession, otherwise he will do so himself, regardless of the legal consequences.
Mr. Kammenos also sent this material to House Speaker Evangelos Meimarakis to inform the parties.
As described by Mr. Kammenos, assisted by Mr. Chaikalis, he case began a few days ago. “We had a friendly relationship with the intermediary, at first I thought he was kidding, and then he began to get serious”, they noted.
The first critical meeting, lasting one hour and 14 minutes, held in Plaza hotel was recorded by a camera watch worn by Mr. Chaikalis, which shows Apostolopoulos’ face clearly.
Immediately after, the MP briefed Mr. Kammenos and prosecutor Panagiotopoulos, as well as the head of the Prosecutor’s office, Ntogiakos.
The latter urged Mr. Chaikalis to continue his meetings in order to get evidence and a full record of illegal acts.
The second meeting lasted 15 minutes, with the promise of a third. The middle-man promised the MP 700,000 euros, a bank debt settlement, and an amount of gold.
The transcripts of the conversation were handed over to the Prosecutor, and also sent to a foreign notary for safekeeping.
In the third meeting, which would have happened in the MP’s home, there was a police sting operation set up to arrest the middle-man in person. However, two minutes prior to the meeting, Mr. Apostolopoulos phoned Mr. Chaikalis and told him he will not be attending, wishing him… “Happy Holidays”. Prior to that, the MP had sent him a text message asking him if the reason he was late was because he was lost.
According to Mr. Chaikalis, Apostolopoulos never showed because he was told he was going to be caught, or realized it himself.
Mr. Chaikalis said that, for security reasons, he went to actor and TV presenter and friend, Lakis Lazopoulos, and told him about the material. He states that he chose Mr. Lazopoulos because he is a close friend and because he has the studio equipment required to clean up the audio in the recording.
As far as the mix-up in the beginning on whether Mr. Chaikalis had given authorities the name of the middle-man, the MP said that he had stated Apostolopoulos’ name since the first moment, but there was nothing in official documents, in order to ensure confidentiality and catch him in the act.
According to Mr. Kammenos and Mr. Chaikalis, the recorded talks include shocking revelations of other attempted bribes towards MPs for the election of the President of the Republic.
He asked to reveal phone conversations of Mr. Apostolopoulos in order to reveal if he spoke with Dimitris Stamatis of Prime Minsiter Samaras’ office, while he stated that Mr. Samaras was on the phone with MPs of ANEL.
Mr. Kammenos stated, in turn, that he met Mr. Apostolopoulos when he was in Mr. Samaras’ office while he was a MP for the New Democracy party. Then, the alleged middle-man joined ANEL for a short period of time and was then hired by Deutsche Bank.
Mr. Kammenos communicated that he will not be threatened by anyone, and has nothing to fear. “Neither companies, nor off-shore, not anything. I call them to release anything they may have on me. If they can take it, let them”.
