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Vavilis is ready to reveal names ( 08.04.2006 )

Extradition from Italy to his homeland of Apostolos vavilis, whose name apart from international drug trafficking is also linked with still covered up scandals that shook Greece last year, implicating involvement of persons from the police, political and church leadership of the country.

According to an Athens court decision today, the 7-year prison term imposed on Apostolos Vavilis in 1994 by a court in Venice for the same offence (bringing 1.8 kilos of heroin from Italy to Greece) remains.

In his statement during the trial, Vavilis, who said he had smuggled the drugs “to help the authorities” and pleaded innocence, expressed his readiness to reveal the details about the role he had played in the election of the deposed Patriarch of Jerusalem, Irenaeus, in 2001, by order of Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens. He promised to reveal the names of the high-ranking persons he had cooperated with “if it is not deemed a betrayal of the homeland.”

Apostolos Vavilis claimed that people had been trying to target through him Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens, to whom he pledged his loyalty, saying: “I still love Christodoulos as I used to.” For his part, the head of the Church of Greece has denied having sent in 2001 vavilis to Jerusalem with the task to fix the patriarchal elections. Still, archbishop Christodoulos has admitted to writing letters of recommendation for Vavilis before and after his drugs conviction.

There are also charges against vavilis of playing the leading role in a trial fixing case as well as in a case involving Irenaeus, the deposed patriarch of Jerusalem.

                                                      the information is taken from the Greek daily Ekathimerini
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100010_08/04/2006_68413