Alternate Health Minister Pavlos Polakis was found guilty of defamation against deceased journalist Vasilis Beskenis by the Athens First Instance Court.
The court ruled that the Minister had used offensive language, disseminating lies and pilloried the journalist in parliament and in posts on Facebook and ordered him to pay compensation to the family of the late Vasilis Beskenis.
Polakis had accused Vasilis Beskenis of allegedly having been appointed to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (HCDCP) after leaving the office of former Health Minister and current VP of New Democracy (ND), Adonis Georgiadis.

The case concerned allegations made by Pavlos Polakis in the House on 6.3.2017. At the time, when he had claimed that a list of 25 people forwarded by Adonis Georgiadis to the HCDCP requesting their appointment to the centre, included journalist Vasilis Beskesis.

Following an investigation, it was concluded that Beskenis had absolutely no connection to HCDCP.
As the reasoning of the ruling by the Multimember First Instance Court showed the judges accepted the claims of Vasilis Beskenis and ruled the allegations by the Minister “false” and aimed to “insult and offend his honour and reputation”.