The Athens Prosecutor’s Office has brought felony charges of breach of trust against the head of the Greek section of the NGO Helsinki Watch, Panagiotis Dimitras.

The case concerns funds from European and other bodies which, according to initial findings by the Anti-Money Laundering Authority, were not allocated for the purposes for which they had been granted.

Following the prosecution against Mr. Dimitras, the case file—which reportedly also involves a relative of his—was forwarded to an investigating judge, who will summon him for questioning.

Specifically, a preliminary investigation had preceded this development, which began in mid-2023 after the Athens Prosecutor’s Office received a report from the Anti-Money Laundering Authority.

In that report, the independent authority, headed by former Deputy Prosecutor of the Supreme Court Charalambos Vourliotis, found, according to reports, that funds from European and other bodies had not been managed properly. The money was not used for the purposes for which it had been approved.

In fact, during the course of its investigation, the authority had frozen the assets of Mr. Dimitras as well as those of the NGO he controls.

For his part, Mr. Dimitras spoke of a “smear campaign” against him and, in a statement, said among other things that “the alleged funding for the support of human rights, supposedly diverted to other purposes, is nonexistent.” According to his statement, “the only funded program concerns the fight against hate speech and is posted by the funding body, the European Commission.”