Former bank chairman cleared of murder attempt

Lavrentis Lavrentiadis was found not guilty Friday, along with six co-defendants, by an Athens court of the charge of the attempted murder of a hotel owner in 2012.

According to the prosecuting attorney, the attempt occurred in June 2012, when an explosive device was placed in a plant pot at the house of Athinagoras Andreadakis in the Vouliagmeni suburb of Athens.

But the court jury unanimously ruled that all the defendants were not guilty of the charges. The hotel owner, who did not testify at the trial due to health reasons, had told an investigating magistrate in 2014 that Lavrentiadis was not involved in the attempt.

Lavrentiadis is currently on trial over a string of questionable loans worth a total of 700 million euros that Proton bank granted while he was chairman to a group of companies that he owned.