Akis Tsochatzopoulos

An Athens court on Thursday ordered the seizure of real estate assets and cash deposits held by former defense minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos, as well as fining him 1.5 million euros, of which he will have to pay 1 million euros.

Viki Stamati, the wife of the former defense minister convicted for accepting bribes and money laundering Akis Tsochatzopoulos, has filed for divorce.

An Athens appeals court on Tuesday ordered that former defense minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos be returned to prison after rejecting his appeal against his conviction for money laundering.

An Athens appeals court on Monday upheld convictions for 16 people including former defense minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos in connection with millions of euros worth of kickbacks from state defense contracts.

The theory and practice of Greece's Renewing Left - which later became one of the founding forces of SYRIZA (following, of course, numerous additions and transformations which altered the party's original character) - was formed through its opposition to the neighboring political forces, namely the Greek Communist Party (KKE) and PASOK socialists.

A day after Akis Tsochatzopoulos expressed admiration for the ruling leftist SYRIZA party in an interview with private TV channel Alpha on Thursday night, SYRIZA MEP and European Parliament Vice President Dimitris Papadimoulis took to Twitter to put some distance between his party and the disgraced former defense minister's comments.

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 prosecutor Wednesday asked an Athens court to reject appeals by former defense minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos, his wife Viki Stamati and another 10 people against their convictions in connection with a money-laundering racket linked to kickbacks from state procurements.

According to prosecutor Anastasia Dimitriadou, a judicial probe has linked all the above to the racket.

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.

Former defense minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for money laundering in 2013, is expected to be released from Athens's Korydallos Prison on Thursday following repeated delays in the approval of his discharge.