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Cyprus abbot to be held behind bars in Greece
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HUNDREDS of people will gather tonight in front of the Greek Embassy in Nicosia to demand the release of Abbot Ephraim from a Greek prison.
Ephraim, chief monk of the Vatopedi monastery, is accused of embezzlement, money laundering and making false statements in a case concerning a land swap deal with the Greek government.
He had been let free after testifying on the case because the prosecutor and an examining magistrate were at odds over whether to jail him or release him on bail. But a panel of appeals court judge decided Friday that he must be jailed, as he was a flight risk.
The abbot, who is a Cypriot and the brother of EVROKO deputy chairman Nicos Koutsou, was arrested Saturday and placed under guard in his monastic cell.
Initially Ephraim was kept "provisionally" under guard in his cell, after claiming to suffer from a high fever and a high blood sugar count.
His health appearing to have improved, Ephraim was yesterday escorted by police to Athens, where he was set to undergo another medical before being transferred to the Koridallos prison in Piraeus.
Ephraim is to stay behind bars until his trial, a date for which has yet to be set. If found guilty, he could face life imprisonment.
Korydallos is the main prison of Greece, housing both maximum-security men and women. Currently its most famous detainees are members of the November 17 terrorist group and Colonel Nikolaos Dertilis, the last surviving member of the military junta.
Supporters and sympathisers of Ephraim are mounting a worldwide campaign for the abbot’s release. A petition launched on Friday has already gathered tens of thousands of signatures. The petition has been posted online, at http://www.freegerontaefraim.com/en.
In Cyprus, pro-Ephraim activists are also engaging in door-to-door canvassing.
Athos Kiranidis, an Ephraim associate here, said more than 10,000 signatures have been collected so far from Cypriot sympathisers.
“We’re hoping to reach the one million mark globally,” Kiranidis told the Mail.
The petition, which is addressed to the President of the Hellenic Republic, the Prime Minister and the Greek Attorney General, calls the decision to take Ephraim into custody a ‘judicial crime’ and says it was based on ‘hatred and prejudice’.
“We are convinced that the decision is a deliberate political act intending to defame the Holy Mountain and the Church,” it reads.
Only the Attorney General in Greece has the power to reverse the decision.
Today, hundreds of laypersons here will gather outside the Greek Embassy building in a display of support for the abbot.
They will be handing the Greek Ambassador a separate resolution demanding Ephraim’s immediate release, with a request that he pass the resolution on to the Greek Attorney General.
The gathering, to start around 7pm, will be a “peaceful” event involving the singing of Byzantine hymns, said Kiranidis.
“It is an unfair decision, for many reasons. Usually, people are set free during Christmas, not the reverse,” Kiranidis he added.
The abbot, along with dozens other defendants, will stand trial, but the politicians embroiled in the scandal will not. Back in February Greece’s parliament decided that the relevant statute of limitations - which is far more restrictive for MPs than for other citizens - had expired.
The decision to arrest Ephraim has sparked a political and media storm in Greece. One deputy minister there has asked for the resignation of deputy justice minister Giorgos Petalotis, a key prosecution witness in the case.
