All police officers accused of a financial shortfall, more than 700,000 euros, revealed in police departments of Thessaloniki, after the suicide in October 2022 of their colleague, who was in charge of financial affairs at the Security Service.

A total of seven police officers, the majority of them officers (male and female), were indicted in the case. Six of them were acquitted by a decision of the Thessaloniki Trial Court for the offences of breach of duty and false certification (both of which were committed repeatedly), while the seventh, who had a supervisory role, was acquitted at an earlier time by a verdict of the competent Judicial Council for complicity by omission in embezzlement against the Greek State, repeatedly (to the extent of a felony).

The involvement of the above came to light following a management audit, with the deficit relating to the General Financial Management of the Thessaloniki Security Directorate. It concerned money intended for extraordinary official expenses, such as travel and travel expenses of police personnel. For more than 4 years the suicide was the administrator of this service, while the money of the cash deficit seems to have ended up in betting activities, as it emerged from the preliminary investigation conducted by the Sub-Directorate of Internal Affairs of the Security Corps of Northern Greece.

The seven persons involved were administrators and supervisors of various ELAS directorates in Thessaloniki, while, according to the indictment, they inadvertently allocated financial sums to the suicide victim, facilitating him in covering the needs of his fund.

Those who were tried in the Plenary Court claimed that they had no knowledge of their colleague’s mismanagement and that they themselves were misled, while for the amounts they allocated to him, bypassing the procedures provided for, they claimed that they acted in order to facilitate him in covering immediate service needs, in the context of collegial solidarity and good faith. “We did not intend to harm the service, we did not know him and we did not take a single euro,” they said, among other things, in their apologies, stressing that they had not received any training in financial management.

“They gave the money in the belief that it was for official needs. The deficit was not due to them; they were also misled,” the prosecutor of the court said in her motion, asking for their acquittal.

It was reported that in the course of the investigation into the deficit, imputations were made against the persons involved, with the amounts varying depending on the case. They have approached the relevant Courts for the removal of the imputations against them.