In the bribery affair of the Munich technology group Siemens in Greece more than 20 years ago, the Athens regional court acquitted all the accused because the statute of limitations had expired. This was reported by the state broadcaster on Monday. In 2019, the Greek judiciary in the first instance had originally sentenced a total of 22 former employees of Siemens AG and the former Greek state telecommunications company OTE to prison terms of between six and 15 years for bribery and money laundering. Those convicted, including seven Germans, had appealed. The long-standing case involved bribes that Siemens employees are said to have paid to decision-makers in Greece from 1997 onwards. The German group should be commissioned with the digitization of the Greek telephone network. In an out-of-court settlement in 2012, according to the Greek Ministry of Finance at the time, Athens and Siemens had, among other things, waived the payment of Greek debts and promised to promote jobs.
Bribery – Acquittal in Greek Siemens affair – Economy
