Investigation of former minister Papantoniou's role in 'Leopard' tank contract to Parliament

The prosecutor for corruption on Friday forwarded a case on the purchase of 'Leopard' tanks by the Greek armed forces to Parliament, for investigation of possible criminal liability on the part former defence minister Yiannos Papantoniou.

The case was built up over an investigation lasting several months, which culminated in criminal charges against 13 individuals.

The part of the case concerning Papantoniou, who succeeded the now jailed former minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos at the defence ministry, relates to the period from October 2001 until March 2004 and an offset benefits contract signed alongside the main contract for the German-made tanks.

Charges have been pressed against 12 state officials involved in the specific contract and a well-known businessman representing the arms manufacturer that built the tanks, who is also facing charges in another suspected arms procurements scandal.

The investigation was carried out by the prosecutor aganst corruption Eleni Raikou and assigned to assistant prosecutors Popi Papandreou and Antonis Eleftherianos. Its main focus was to determine whether the money from implementing the offset benefits was used to assist the domestic defence industry, as it was supposed to. Based on the findings of the investigation, the sum of roughly 25 million euros was used by the businessman in question to participate in share capital increases of firms owned by his group of businesses.

The case has now been assigned to an examining magistrate for corruption.