Compensation payments start
The Labor Ministry’s general secretariat for welfare was expected to disburse the first tranche of compensation to six Attica municipalities which suffered damage during heavy rainstorms on October 24. Deputy Labor Minister Vassilis Kegeroglou announced yesterday that the sum of 304,667 euros was to be distributed to the municipalities of Ilion, Aghioi AnargyroiKamatero, Fyli, Peristeri, Piraeus and Acharnes. According to Kegeroglou, the cash was expected to be distributed to residents in the form of emergency 587-euro subsidies.
Monument vandalized.
The government yesterday condemned the desecration of the Holocaust memorial in Athens after it was vandalized with graffiti signed by the far-right group “Unaligned Meander Nationalists.” In a statement, Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos pledged that the authorities will do everything in their power to arrest the perpetrators. The act was also condemned by the Athens Jewish Community and the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece.
PSI protest.
Retail bondholders hit by the country’s debt restructuring, or PSI, in 2012 staged a protest rally outside the Finance Ministry in Athens yesterday demanding that the government make amends for their hefty losses. Protesters shouted slogans against the government and hung a dead pig from a pole on the occasion of World Savings Day. “For the third time, we will celebrate World Savings Day as savers who had their savings stolen by the state in cooperation with banks,” they said in a statement. Another protest was held in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, outside the Bank of Greece offices.
Tsochatzopoulos appeal.
The appeal of former Defense Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos, currently serving 20 years for accepting bribes in exchange for weapons contracts, was postponed until November 14 yesterday as the court examines a slew of objections filed by his defense. Another 16 people, including the ex-minister’s wife, have been convicted of money laundering and other offenses in connection with the bribes-for-contracts scandal.
Precinct raid.
One of eight people arrested on Wednesday night after an attack on a police precinct in Mesolongi, western Greece, was remanded in pretrial custody yesterday. Two other suspects, aged 19 and 20, were released on bail, while the other five were granted unconditional release. The 27-year-old man who was remanded is believed to have been one of several people who threw Molotov cocktails, rocks and sticks at the police station after an officer tried to stop two men from erecting a protest banner on a public building in the center of Mesolongi.