Athens court curbs term for ex PASOK minister, allows him to pay it off

An Athens appeals court on Friday reduced to five years an eight-year prison sentence handed down to former PASOK minister Tasos Mandelis for money laundering and said it would allow him to pay off the fine.

Mandelis was convicted of money laundering in 2011 in relation to the sum of 450,00 German Marks (about 230,000 euros) that he is alleged to have received from German company Siemens for securing an OTE Telecom contract in 1997.

The appeals court said he could pay off his sentence at the cost of 40 euros a day, a total of 140,000 euros.

Mantelis appealed to the court to help him pay off the fine, saying that he and his family live on his 1,100-euro monthly pension.

The judges decided to allow him to pay off the fine in 32 monthly installments.

A sum of 230,000 euros that had been seized when the scandal broke is to be given to OTE as compensation,...