Yiannis Sbokos

Corruption prosecutor Eleni Touloupaki has launched new criminal proceedings in connection with a contract for the procurement of Chinook helicopters, which was signed in 1998 when the disgraced Socialist Akis Tsochatzopoulos was minister of defense.

A former senior Defense Ministry official, two brokers and two entrepreneurs have appealed to Greece's Supreme Court to overturn a ruling indicting them for allegedly pocketing kickbacks from old defense deals.

The former general secretary for military procurements Yiannis Sbokos, who is serving time in jail after being convicted of money laundering, is being blackmailed by a fellow felon, according to a case file prepared by the police.

Police are investigating after a restaurant in Athens was hit by an explosive device for the second time in two months in the early hours of Wednesday.

No one was injured in the attack which took place at 4.15 a.m. in the northern Athens suburb of Nea Erythraia causing major damage to the establishment and four cars parked nearby.

The trial of Yiannis Sbokos, former head of arms procurements at the Defense Ministry, and Antonis Kantas, an ex-deputy in the same department, was pushed to April 28 on Monday, after the defendants’ legal teams argued that the charges brought against them had expired under the statute of limitations.