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The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) said Thursday that four Greek lawmakers were among 22 people indicted in a multimillion-dollar European Union (EU) farm subsidy scandal that has shaken the Greek government.
The agency said it had "indicted 22 defendants, including four current members of the Hellenic Parliament, several former high-ranked public officials and political staff, as part of an investigation into an alleged organized fraud scheme involving agricultural funds."
Those indicted include a former political secretary of the ruling New Democracy party and several former officials of the state agency responsible for distributing the subsidies, OPEKEPE. One of them is a former chairman of the agency.
Among the lawmakers, the accusations include instigation to commit abuse of trust, instigation to unlawful management of EU funds, and instigation to false attestation and attempted computer fraud, the EPPO said.
The lawmakers are under investigation for allegedly enabling dozens of private individuals to claim subsidies for land they did not own and to exaggerate the number of animals on farms.
An EPPO statement said evidence "indicates, among other things, unlawful interventions in administrative and inspection procedures, retrospective alterations of data following the completion of mandatory controls, unlawful interference with on-the-spot inspections, the concealment and manipulation of inspection findings, and false certifications."
Some people who received payments had no connection to agriculture.
Most of the fraudulent subsidies went to Crete.
The case has piled pressure on conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whose family has been politically influential in Crete for more than a century.
If convicted, the defendants face prison terms of up to five years and fines.
The EPPO said allegations against seven other members of Parliament and two former lawmakers had been dismissed because of a lack of evidence.
Three former members of Parliament remain under investigation, the agency said.
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