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ND government prepares to put public stamp on “biggest coup d’etat”
Last week Documento received a letter from the coordinating committee of the struggle of the inhabitants of the mountainous northwestern Zakynthos, informing us that, while for a year the supplementary prosecutor’s proposal for the formulation of additional criminal charges against the defendants is artificially delayed. 1679/2020 of seven people who raised the case of the sale of 13% of Zakynthos in the wider area of the famous beach of the Shipwreck to the Emir of Qatar, so that their trial can finally take place, the government of ND brings to a vote in Parliament the creation a public limited company that through PPP will implement in another way the plan that the people of Zakynthos called as “the biggest fraud of the post-colonial period”.
The fraud concerns the sale of a large area of 14,000 acres in NW Zakynthos, which includes church land, municipal pastures and the properties of 200 poor families, by a person who did not belong to the Emir of Qatar and is known to regular Documento readers.
It should be reminded, however, that the case began in 2014 with a purchase contract in which a Zakynthian named Georgios Haros, from a village in NW Zakynthos, who made a living selling souvlakia, suddenly appeared as the owner of the entire NW of Zakynthos and real estate company Pimana, acting on behalf of the Emir of Qatar, for 9 million euros. For the sale, G. Haros presented as a title deed an 18th century Venetian document that was strangely considered valid, although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that it could not be translated. With this document, the Monastery of Anafonitria was said to have given 250 years ago to a distant ancestor of Haros all its real estate in mountainous Zakynthos, ie a huge area of 14,387 acres, which started from the communities of Exochora, Marion and Anafonitria. to the community of Volimon, which included the monastery of Ai-Giorgis of Krimna, the Holy Cave of Agios Gerasimos, roads, forests, streams, archeological monuments, the famous beaches of Navagio and Porto Vromi and the properties of 200 poor families in the area.
As soon as the news was heard in Zakynthos, the Diocese of Zakynthos, together with the monastery of Agios Georgios Krimnos, proceeded with lawsuits, lawsuits and injunctions. Thanks to the personal struggle of the then deputy governor of Zakynthos Lefteris Niotopoulos, who pioneered the defense of the property of the inhabitants acting as a link between the inhabitants of the villages, the public and the church, followed the additional interventions of the Ionian Islands Region of the Municipality. of the region and the Greek state.
Six years of litigation thus passed during which:
• In 2015, the interim measures were issued that prohibited any change or intervention of Pimana in the disputed area until the final decision is made.
The fraud concerns the sale of 14,000 acres in NW Zakynthos – which includes church land, municipal pastures and the property of poor families – by a person who did not belong to the Emir of Qatar of the court on the validity or non-validity of the contract, thus seizing the property of the residents. Nevertheless, last year the district ordered the opening of a road in the area (preparing the ground for the investment?).
• In 2018, a preliminary ruling was issued by the Multi-Member Court of First Instance of Zakynthos, which did not declare the contract Harou – Pimana invalid, but set an expert opinion on determining the location, extent and boundaries of the property of St. George of Krimna in court and vindicated the monastery.
• In June 2020, the panel 1679/2020 of the Athens Council for Criminal Procedure was published, which ruled that the alleged seller G. Haros never owned the land he sold and that the case was pure fraud, resulting in the seven people who participated in the purchase ( including four government officials) to be tried for three felonies. However, the council first handed over the file to the Corruption Investigator for further investigation, in order to investigate whether additional crimes have been committed and whether the neighboring islet of Agios Ioannis, located west of the Shipwreck beach, has been sold.
Until the decision of the Council of Criminal Courts, key executives of ND, from the center to the region (Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Adonis Georgiadis, Rodi Kratsa, etc.), presented in all tones the purchase and sale of 13% of the island from Pimana as “divine luck for Zakynthos” and “unique development opportunity” that “should not be wasted due to bureaucracy”, while the newspaper “Kathimerini” showed special interest in the fate of the investment. At the same time, those who opposed the investment – from the metropolitan of Zakynthos himself to the journalists and residents who collected and published data – received threatening phone calls, which they complained to the Cybercrime Prosecution.
But as soon as the bill was announced, the neo-democrats temporarily swallowed their tongues, and Pimana, who is said to be the owner of the land – apparently so as not to further involve the name of the emir of Qatar in a proven fraud by a court – was transferred from the state Qatar Al Rayyan company in a foreign company of unknown owner, based in the Virgin Islands, and a little later appeared on the board of the new company the name of Euth. Boulouta, CEO of Ellactor, one of the two most powerful Greek construction companies.
And while the residents of NW Zakynthos have been waiting for a year for the issuance of the prosecutor’s decision that will pave the way for the trial of the accused as “swindlers” who sold their land, in order to clear the case and finally be justified, this strangely and artificially one year late.
“The prosecutor’s proposal to the Athens Council for Criminal Procedure that acquitted Haros and his associates came out in 15 days. That is, a young prosecutor read 10,000 pages and made a decision in 15 days. The material of the additional interrogation is only 150 pages and has been assigned to a prosecutor for a year. Doesn’t it seem strange to you that one prosecutor reads 10,000 pages in 15 days and the other prosecutor can’t read 150 pages in one year? ” asks George Tsoukalas-Kotsiris. “We understand that in this way the government saves time to proceed with the implementation of an alternative plan, through the establishment of a public SA that will vote in Parliament to give the Shipwreck and the surrounding area to the investor for 99 years to exploit.” ends up.
The ubiquitous Haris Theocharis
On November 18, 2016, the then independent MP Haris Theocharis had submitted a question to the Minister of Finance Euclid Tsakalotos, regarding the support provided by the public to the lawsuit of the Diocese of Zakynthos and the inhabitants of the mountain villages, as well as their request for contract for the purchase of the area in question by Pimana. In his own question, Ch. Theocharis indicated that he had contacts with the Qataris, as he claimed that Qatar has a “serious plan for tourism development with a total budget of 2 billion euros, which includes luxury hotel infrastructure, cultural and sports centers, residential complexes in the standards of Pearl Island in Qatar, theme parks, marinas and shopping malls “and accused Tsakalotos of torpedoing the investment.
In the years that followed the defense of the “purchase” of Pimana against the “reactionary” residents of NW Zakynthos, ND executives from the center (eg Adonis Georgiadis) and the region (eg Rodi Kratsa) took over. After the issuance of the council of the Council of Misdemeanor Cases 1679/2020 which ruled that the sale was a fraud, so the case ceased to be politically defensible, Ch. Theocharis, now Minister of Tourism, came as a machine god to give a solution announcing the establishment of a Wreck Special Management Agency – which will, he says, provide “rapid solutions to protect the monument in an area where local interests (Pimana and Bouloutas represent local interests?) have been at odds for years,” according to the always-interested report. for this “Kathimerini” case. So what exactly will this player do? Some basic and simple things: “To paint the trunk of the ship with a minion, to build a staircase for tourists to climb the bridge”.
However, when this law was made public last June, the residents of the mountainous communities of Zakynthos found out that H. Theorharis of its founding law, in addition to the seashore and the Shipwreck where the state already has ownership, will have the opportunity to expropriate everything around, ie the property of the villagers and the church, to do urban planning on special terms (for to build whatever he wants?) and mainly to do Public-Private Partnerships, ceding all the public land around the Shipwreck (and whatever he has expropriated from the residents’ property or church property) for 99 years to the Emir of Qatar – possibly in alliance with some Greek construction company, as indicated by Boulouta’s participation in the Board of Directors of Pimana.
In Zakynthos, since 2014, the biggest fraud of the post-colonial regime has been set up against 200 poor families and the Diocese of Zakynthos “, says George Tsoukalas-Maniatis, head of the Struggle Committee from Anafonitria. “And the former Minister of Tourism, known for his questioning about the public intervention in favor of the residents, not being able to bear the pain of the Misdemeanor Board, which ruled definitively and irrevocably that the case is a fraud, thought of the alternative plan of creating an SA in a reforested area, Natura area, with precautionary measures and under judicial investigation “he concludes.
For full story in Greek click on source link:- Documentonews.gr
