No plans to seize Goethe, says justice minister

Justice Minister Nikos Paraskevopoulos yesterday denied the government was planning to seize German state-owned assets as compensation for a Nazi atrocities during World War II.

“No Greek citizen would want the confiscation of a historic educational/cultural institute like the Goethe [Institute in Athens],” Paraskevopoulos said in a statement.

Paraskevopoulos had been quoted earlier this month as saying he was ready to approve a Supreme Court ruling from 2000 backing payment to relatives of 218 civilians massacred by Nazi troops in Distomo, a village in central Greece, in June 1944.