Two prison officers serving sentences for bringing mobile phones into prisons are released

Two prison officials, who were sentenced last October to multi-year prison sentences in Thessaloniki, are released from prison for importing and distributing mobile phones, for a fee, to inmates in prisons…

The Five-member Court of Appeal of Thessaloniki accepted the application they had submitted for suspension of the execution of their sentence until they are judged by the appellate court. The judges linked their release with restrictive conditions and specifically imposed the conditions of the ban on leaving the country, the appearance at the police station of the place of residence and the payment of a cash guarantee of 3,000 euros, on each.

In their request for release, the two prison officials, who were put on holiday after their conviction, cited mainly family and financial reasons.

It concerns a 61-year-old chief constable and a 39-year-old deputy chief constable, who were unanimously convicted by the Three-member Court of Criminal Appeals of Thessaloniki for professionally bribing employees, importing and disposing of mobile phones in a detention center, as well as for dereliction of duty, without recognition of mitigating factors. The first was sentenced to 9 years and 2 months and the second to 8 years and 8 months, while they were held in Grevena prisons.

The case began to be investigated following complaints made in 2020 by prisoners of the Nigritas prison, where the two prison officers served the disputed period. According to what was reported to the prosecuting authorities, the “tariff” for the acquisition of a mobile phone ranged around 1,000 euros, while according to the same complaints, the prisoners paid at least 250 euros monthly as “rent” for the maintenance of the devices.

In their apologies, they categorically denied the accusations, which they attributed to the fact that the complainants wanted to take revenge on them in this way for the searches that were carried out from time to time in the specific penitentiary to find mobile phones.