Greek shipowner Evangelos Marinakis has vehemently rejected any connection to a revived investigation into a drugs shipment intercepted by the Greek coastguard four years ago.
“The recent judicial action is a deliberate attempt at character assassination. The allegations are fabricated and without any foundation in law or fact, ” Marinakis said in a statement on the website of his football club Olympiacos Piraeus.
Marinakis’s statement came a few hours after several Greek media, citing court sources, reported that he and three business partners were involved in the finance and storage of drugs, mainly heroin, that were shipped into the country back in 2014 from the Middle East on a small cargo ship called Noor 1.
Court authorities have made no official statements on the case, in line with standard practice never to release such information.
New judge to investigate
The reported move by a senior Piraeus judge to name Marinakis in the case and file preliminary charges against him means that a new round of investigations by another judge will start.
It will take several months, if not years, before any firm decision is made as to whether he will face trial or not. This is not expected to impede his ability to conduct business in the meantime.
“It is clear to me that that the results of any new investigation will confirm my innocence. There is not the least evidence to incriminate me and the action against me is completely arbitrary,” Marinakis said in the statement.
Greek courts have already convicted about a dozen people back in 2016 in connection with the Noor 1. Marinakis was not among them.
The issue, however, remained in the attention of some media after one of the Noor 1 convicts, who is currently serving a life term in jail, Efthymios Giannousakis, allegedly involved Marinakis in the case.
Testimony under pressure
However, in an interview he gave in July last year, Giannousakis denied this, saying he was pressured to testify against Marinakis by Greek defence minister Panos Kammenos – who leads a party that is the junior coalition partner in Greece’s government and is known to have a feud with Marinakis for years.
Kammenos has not denied he directly spoke to the jailed Giannousakis over the phone.
Marinakis last year bought Lambrakis Press Organisation (DOL), one of Greece’s biggest publishers, whose previous owners went into bankruptcy.
DOL newspapers have always been sharply critical of Greece’s coalition government of Kammenos and left-wing prime minister Alexis Tsipras and they have continued that policy under Marinakis ownership.
In his statement on Saturday, the Greek owner said the investigation against him is an attempt to muzzle his newspapers by “some dubious members of the governing coalition”.
Officials were ordered “to fabricate evidence against me" and “systematically targeted a convicted felon to incriminate me with terrible lies, by offering him huge financial rewards and the release from prison if he succeeded to do me harm,” Marinakis said.
“Unfortunately, this plot has also been eagerly served by certain members of the judiciary who wish to curry favour with the government,” he added.
The owner spoke of a "deliberate" and "criminal" plot, which abolishes the rule of law and undermines democracy.
“The plotters are well advised to remember this: I will not compromise, I will not capitulate, nor will I succumb to their dirty plan,” Marinakis said in his statement.
