The Felony Appeal Court of Thessaloniki ruled today that the former mayor of Thessaloniki Vasilis Papageorgopoulos, is guilty of complicity in the embezzlement of funds from the city’s treasury and reduced his sentence from life imprisonment to 12 years.
Specifically, with a 3-2 majority vote, the court found the former mayor guilty of complicity in the embezzlement. Upon hearing the guilty verdict, the former mayor addressed the court and commented that the verdict «is a mistake«.
The court also found the former general secretary of Thessaloniki Michalis Lemousias to be guilty of complicity to the embezzlement of 17.9 milllion euros of municipal funds. Mr. Lemousias, whose sentence was reduced to 13 years and 5months, called the verdict a «cold-blooded murder«, stressing that the judges «made a huge mistake«.
