An acquittal was issued a short while ago by the Athens Single-Member Court of Appeals in the case concerning the alleged deception of voters by 11 current and former MPs of the “Spartans” party, Ilias Kasidiaris (accused of moral instigation to voter deception), and a lawyer (accused of complicity in voter deception).

The court adopted the prosecutor’s earlier recommendation, which had called for the acquittal of all defendants.

In announcing the verdict, the presiding judge referred to the relevant legal framework and stated: “I cannot say that deception was proven. One cannot claim that voters don’t know what they’re doing. Therefore, not guilty.” The decision was met with applause from the packed courtroom.

It is worth noting that during the previous hearing, Vasilis Stigas had testified. From the parliament floor, he had previously spoken of a “Greek mafia” and of blackmail within his party, implicitly pointing to Ilias Kasidiaris.

However, in court, Mr. Stigas retracted his allegations, attributing his earlier statements to a moment of poor judgment and misinformation.

Following Stigas’ claims, an investigation was launched by Georgia Adilini, the prosecutor of the Supreme Court, and the case was subsequently brought to trial.

Ultimately, today’s court ruling acquitted all defendants. The prosecutor, in her final recommendation, had stressed:
“There is no evidence proving any voter was misled. There is no indication of specific voters or even a number of voters allegedly deceived. The first 11 defendants were selected by Vasilis Stigas, not by Ilias Kasidiaris. They were not acting under Kasidiaris’ direction and did not intend to overthrow Stigas. The party’s election results were due to Kasidiaris’ support, but that does not constitute deception of the electorate. No voter has filed a complaint claiming they were deceived. I recommend acquittal for all defendants.”