2024-04-03 08:59:39
Two more defendants, ERGOSE officials, who pleaded guilty before the European Investigator Christina Salappa for contract 717 regarding projects for the signaling and remote control of the railway network, left the courts free with the obligation to pay a very high monetary guarantee, greater than those imposed to date for the case, which in total reaches 1.7 million euros.
The investigator and the competent authorized European Prosecutor Popi Papandreou decided that the two defendants from ERGOSE, after the many hours of apologies they gave, can be released with the restrictive condition of the ban on exiting the country and the obligation to pay a monetary guarantee that must be paid within specific period of time.
For one defendant, the bail was set at 800 thousand euros, while for the other at 900 thousand euros.
Until today, three employees of ERGOSE had apologized before Mrs. Shallapa, whose financial guarantees were set at 600 thousand, 500 thousand and 700 thousand euros.
After today’s apologies and with the imposition of guarantees which now reach a total of 3.5 million euros, Mrs. Salappa will in the next few days receive apologies from nine other defendants from ERGOSE, while then the apologies from four accused executives of the Administrative Authority of Operational Program for Transport Infrastructure, Environment and Sustainable Development (EYD/EP-YMEPERAA).
The five individuals, executives of the consortium that undertook the project, are expected to be the last to cross the threshold of the investigative office.
What is the case with the exorbitant amounts that ERGOSE employees are asked to pay
Many are wondering how an employee can pay guarantees of hundreds of thousands of euros in order to remain free.
The truth is that these amounts have not been paid, but a deadline of 15 days has been given for them to be paid. In the meantime, the defendants are expected to file an appeal to reduce the bail amounts to the amount that can be paid by an ordinary employee.
In a statement on Wednesday, March 27, the ERGOSE Employees’ Association explains the regime by which their colleagues are released. In fact, they describe as “unprecedented” the sums of the financial guarantees that the defendants are asked to pay in order not to be remanded in custody and at the same time they attack the media for raising questions about where they found the money to pay the guarantee.
After the amounts of financial guarantees, which are unprecedented for our country, that the 717 employees of ERGOSE, who apologize for the financial management of the contract, are required to pay to the European Prosecutor’s Office, in order to avoid pre-trial detention, unfortunately, an orgy of miserable misinformation is still being spread in the Mass Media. which cultivates the false impression on the ordinary citizen-listener that some civil servants were released because they allegedly found, or had and paid the exorbitant sums of 500, 600 or 700 thousand euros as a guarantee.
So we make it clear once again, as simply as possible, so that there are no shadows on any citizen who wishes not to participate in the orchestrated orgy of defamation of all ERGOSE employees: The excused colleagues who are asked to collect sums of money of more than half a million euros each, for to remain free until their trial, of course they paid nothing. Zero euros so far. And this because they were each given a period of 15 days to pay them otherwise, if these guarantees are not drastically reduced following an appeal that the defendants are entitled to submit, so that their amount corresponds to the profile of an ordinary worker, at the expiration of this period the employees in question with mathematical certainty they will be remanded in custody. But then it will be too late to remove the tons of mud that have been pouring in all the Media for a few days, about the alleged origin of the mythical money, in an orgy of misinformation and slander that is obviously not just a coincidence.
How else can one explain the fact that so many “journalists”, including some considered “reputable”, confuse elementary concepts of the Greek language and do not perceive the essential difference that guarantees were “imposed” with a deadline of 15 days, doesn’t it mean that guarantees were “paid” on the spot, except that there is an obvious expediency to create distorted impressions? This wretchedness, the systematic dragging out of ordinary employees of ERGOSE and the “witch hunt” that has been unleashed, quite coincidentally following the opinion poll findings about the anger of the society, which also quite coincidentally serves all kinds of political leaders, must finally stop.
And for this, we for our part, as we have repeatedly stated, will continue to contribute with all our powers to the truth shining and the responsibilities being attributed to where they really belong, however high they may be.
Source thetoc.gr