- Delays in justice, illegal wiretapping, and an endless cycle of violence.
- Why were 17 defendants, including former senior Greek police officers, acquitted?
- Why has the prosecutor’s October proposal to charge eight defendants remained untouched in the Judicial Council’s files?
- Why were 106,000 recorded telephone conversations between syndicate members discarded as useless evidence?
- The common thread linking the murders of Papachristou, Malamas, Kapetanakis, and Karaivaz.
- What happened to the criminal network that allegedly controlled 300 gambling clubs, 300 casinos, and 350 brothels?
- Monthly “protection fees” ranged from €5,000 to €7,000 for casinos and gambling clubs, €1,000 for brothels and €1,500 for gyms.
By Vagelis Trianti
For the past nine years, the case known as the “Greek Mafia”, involving an alleged corruption ring that sold protection to hundreds of brothels, illegal casinos, and gambling dens with the help of corrupt police officers between 2015 and 2016, has been dragging through the judicial system.
Last October, First Instance Prosecutor Minas-Alexandros Kaloudis recommended that eight of the 21 defendants be charged with crimes to the Judicial Council. These include two retired senior police officers, two lawyers, and various network members with specific roles. To date, however, the Judicial Council has yet to rule on the prosecutor’s proposal.
It is worth noting that in January 2023, the three-member Court of Appeal acquitted 17 people involved in the case of misdemeanors. Their files had been separated for fear of the statute of limitations, and among those acquitted were former high-ranking police officers.
During the hearings, it emerged that numerous wiretaps conducted by the National Intelligence Agency (EYP) from 2015 to 2017 were illegal due to missing prosecutorial authorizations required by law. As a result, these wiretaps were not admitted as evidence by the court. It is also worth noting that between 2018 and 2021, while the case was under judicial investigation, several people who had been under EYP surveillance were murdered. Among them were retired EKAM officer Spyros Papachristou, known as the “treasurer” of the network, Dimitris Malamas, journalist Giorgos Karaivaz, and Dimitris Kapetanakis, known in criminal circles as “Kapes”.
So what is going on in this case? Why has it occupied the justice system for so many years without resolution? And why did the EYP conduct illegal wiretaps that could not be used as evidence in court? The Data Journalists unravel the tangled web.
The unsigned EYP report
In December 2016, the then-director of the National Intelligence Service (EYP), Yiannis Roubatis, submitted a 70-page EYP report to the prosecutor of the Supreme Court. The report detailed the activities of a complex protection racket operating in brothels, strip clubs, gambling dens, and casinos. Businessman Dimitris Malamas was identified as the “treasurer” of the network – a figure who was said to play a central role and to be closely linked to retired EKAM officer Spyros Papachristou. Papachristou was seen as a man with considerable influence and high-level connections in various sectors. Those who knew him described him as “charismatic”, able to deal simultaneously with prominent figures from the underworld, business, and politics, while skilfully maintaining a delicate balance that few could manage.
The network, led by Malamas, allegedly provided “protection” in exchange for monthly fees, ensuring the smooth operation of illegal businesses in brothels, strip clubs, gambling dens, and casinos. According to the EYP’s 70-page report, the network was linked to 300 gambling clubs, 300 casinos, and 350 brothels, all of which paid fixed monthly fees for “protection”. Specifically, brothels were charged €1,000 per month, studios €1,500, and gambling clubs between €5,000 and €7,000 per month.
Unidentified police officers
According to the acquittal decision of the three-member Court of Appeal, “part of these payments were demanded and collected by active police officers serving in various police stations and security divisions, including Omonia, Kolonos, Neos Kosmos, Kypseli, Patision, Agios Panteleimonas, and others”. Specifically, the officers provided warning of possible inspections of illegal brothels.
The court decision notes that these police officers have not been “identified”, although it remains unclear why. Among them is the name of a Greek police officer allegedly working at the Kolonos police station.
The reference to a sub-lieutenant at the Kolonos police station raises questions following revelations about the recent dismantling of a protection racket involving brothels and illegal casinos.
Police officers working in the security department of the Kolonos police station were found to be searching the department’s systems for information on their colleagues in the Greek police’s internal affairs unit, who were investigating the racket. Among those involved was the head of the department’s security unit.
Illegal recordings under the responsibility of the National Intelligence Agency (EYP)
The EYP’s briefing, together with the transcripts of the recorded conversations, was sent to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. Officers from the Internal Affairs Department of the Greek police were tasked with transcribing the conversations recorded by the EYP. This involved dozens of CDs of transcribed conversations, which the then head of Internal Affairs, retired Major General Ilias Kosivakis, told prosecutors would take at least eight months to process. Testifying in a misdemeanor trial, Kosivakis stressed that the recordings amounted to 106,000 phone calls, a volume and time frame that the anti-corruption prosecutors had underestimated. Some of the CDs were given to the financial police for transcription.
In June 2022, due to fears of the statute of limitations, the trial of the administrative aspects of the case began. Seventeen people were on trial before the three-member Court of Criminal Appeals, including retired and serving senior officers of the Hellenic Police. During the trial, it emerged that a significant proportion of the recorded conversations had been conducted illegally, i.e. without the necessary judicial authorization from the supervising prosecutor of the EYP, as required by law.
Specifically, at the request of lawyer Giangos Lampiris, representing one of the officers involved, the court ruled as follows:
“Unsigned notes/recordings of telephone conversations contained in the case file and read in court are admissible and lawful evidence, but only to the extent that they are covered by a prior lawful lifting of confidentiality authorized by an order of the prosecutor of the EYP. Similarly, the corresponding audio material heard during the trial will not be considered, as it is considered inadmissible evidence“. As a result, many of the conversations were excluded from consideration by the court. This included conversations between Dimitris Malamas and Greek police officers. It remains unclear why the EYP conducted wiretaps that would have no evidential value in court.
“Non-existent evidence”
A key point in the trial was the statement by the prosecutor, Panagiotis Meidanis, who described the evidence as “non-existent” despite the “seriousness of the charges”.
“To sum up, I must stress that unfortunately, at least in this trial, it became clear that despite the seriousness of the charges and after more than five years of preliminary investigation, the evidence in the case file remained essentially non-existent. I hope that the other file, which will be the subject of the main investigation, will have better prospects,” said Mr Meidanis. He added:
“From what has emerged, and with the caveat that this court has never been presented with the full evidence from the closely related case file still pending in the main investigation, it does not appear that the accused committed the wrongful acts attributed to them. They should therefore be acquitted”.
Indeed, the court acquitted all 17 defendants, some unanimously and others by a majority, accepting the prosecutor’s recommendation.
Prosecutor’s recommendation to send eight to trial
At the end of October, the Prosecutor of the First Instance, Minas-Alexandros Kaloudis, recommended to the Judicial Council that eight of the 21 defendants be referred for trial. Those recommended for trial include two retired Greek police officers who were acquitted in the misdemeanor trial, two lawyers, and various members of the criminal network with specific roles. The offenses for which their referral is proposed are felonies, including participation in and formation of a criminal organization, racketeering as an accomplice, and bribery of public officials.
According to the prosecutor’s recommendation: “The criminal organization had a clear internal structure, with the links between its members forming a hierarchical system. At the top of this hierarchy were, in particular, serving and retired officers of the Greek police”.
According to the prosecutor’s recommendation, Dimitris Malamas was identified as the “leader-director of the organization”, who allegedly served as the criminal network’s treasurer.
The unsolved murder of Papachristou
It is worth noting that during the judicial investigation of this case, several people who had been under EYP surveillance between 2015 and 2017 were murdered. On 1 May 2018, retired police officer Spyros Papachristou was mysteriously murdered outside the Kritikos tavern in Pallini. According to a report by Data Journalists, the investigation into Papachristou’s murder was assigned to the homicide department, but in the summer of 2020, the mobile phones of the murdered ex-police officer were neglected in a drawer at the police headquarters (GADA). At that time, on the orders of the Minister of Citizen Protection, Michalis Chrysochoidis, the two mobile phones in Papachristou’s possession were sent to the Forensic Investigations Directorate of the Greek Police for examination of their contents. In 2021, the police forwarded the file on Papachristou’s murder to the prosecutor’s office. However, the file did not contain any SMS messages or communications from Papachristou’s phones. As a result, the first instance prosecutor charged the then-head of the homicide squad with misconduct. The officer was referred to trial, which took place in December last year. The officer was acquitted, despite the prosecutor’s recommendation for conviction. It is noteworthy that this officer is no longer in the Homicide Department, but has been transferred to a key position in the National Intelligence Service (EYP).
The Assassination of Dimitris Malamas in 2019
It is believed that Dimitris Malamas was promoted after the murder of Spyros Papachristou. However, the promotion was short-lived. In October 2019, Malamas was killed while sitting in his car at a red light on Athens Avenue in Haidari. The assassins, who were on a motorcycle, opened fire on him with a Kalashnikov. Malamas also had a close relationship with journalist Giorgos Karaivaz. The EYP had illegally intercepted conversations between them.
In April 2021, Giorgos Karaivaz was murdered outside his home in Alimos. Two brothers, aged 41 and 49, were arrested and charged with his murder. However, last summer they were both acquitted by a majority vote as the evidence against them was deemed insufficient. The court found that the evidence did not convincingly prove their guilt, leading to an acquittal based on reasonable doubt.
Another person linked to Malamas and Karaivaz who was murdered was 56-year-old Dimitris Kapetanakis, also known as “Kapes”. An underworld figure for decades, Kapetanakis was gunned down with 28 Kalashnikov rounds, including a final execution-style shot to the head, on Ymittos Street in Vrilissia on 9 December 2020.
