Suspect in political bribery case to testify on Monday!

The public prosecutor investigating allegations of possible MP bribery has summoned George Soukouris, who was named by Independent Greeks (ANEL) MP Stavroula Xoulidou, to testify in the case as a suspect on Monday. According to Xoulidou, he had hinted that she might receive a sizable amount of money if she agreed to break the party line and participate in a vote for the new president in the present Parliament.

A report from the state news agency ANA-MPA said that the prosecutor in charge of the case considers that evidence presented by ANEL party leader Panos Kammenos implicates Soukouris and needs to be evaluated. Kammenos apparently presented a video that seemed to indicate that the suspect had closer ties to New Democracy than he asserts.

Xoulidou testified that Soukouris had suggested that her vote for a new Greek president might earn her at least two million euros and had also dropped hints that the MP Panagiotis Melas (who is now an independent MP after leaving the ANEL party in the wake of these allegations), had accepted the bribe.

It should be noted that Melas has filed a civil suit over the issue, and has denied all the above as slander.

Soukouris has also denied Xoulidou's claims, underlining that his contacts with ND members were for issues relating to ethnic Greeks from Albania.