Monks in Osiou Avakoum scandal request new lawyer

Two monks involved in the Osiou Avakoum monastery scandal requested on Friday to replace their attorney at a hearing to unfreeze their assets, which was eventually postponed by the court until September.

The case of frozen assets, property and money amounting to €807,000, was previously filed by the defence lawyer of three of the monks, Adriana Klaedes.

The monks were Archimandrite Porfyrios, Monk Avakoum, and Archimandrite Nektarios, who is currently in custody as a suspect to further financial crimes.

In court on Friday, were Porfyrios and Avakoum with their lawyer Klaedes.

During the hearing, the two monks requested to replace Klaedes as their lawyer, to which the court said she would have to get the confirmation from Nektarios for a replacement to go ahead.

The court also decided that they would be postponing the examination of the request by the monks to unfreeze their assets.

According to what was heard in court, the case was postponed to September 18, to allow time for a new defence lawyer to come in and for the prosecution to prepare.

The appeal is to have the €807,000 cash seized in an investigation into dealings at the monastery returned to them and have the bank accounts of the three monks unfrozen.

Klaedes had filed the initial appeal, which also demanded the return of their property.

According to the appeal of the three affected monks, it is their position that not all the facts were presented by the police to secure the freezing orders for the money and property and that if the court had known all the facts, it would not have issued said orders.

The monks claimed that the money was part of a property donation to the monastery, for land being managed by one of the monks.