Athens court

An Athens court has convicted the so-called "Elevator Dragon" to life in prison for the murder in 1997 of 21-year-old Nikitas Koronios in front of his girlfriend in the Lycabettus area in central Athens.

"The accused is definitely the culprit and he could have been candid about it to the court and the for the sake of his victim's memory," the prosecutor said.

A prosecutor Wednesday asked an Athens court to reject appeals by former defense minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos, his wife Viki Stamati and another 10 people against their convictions in connection with a money-laundering racket linked to kickbacks from state procurements.

According to prosecutor Anastasia Dimitriadou, a judicial probe has linked all the above to the racket.

Gikas Hardouvelis, a former finance minister, was acquitted on Monday of charges for failing to submit a declaration of assets ("pothen esches") form while he served interim premier Lucas Papademos, as an adviser from 2011 to 2012.

The head of the Athens court of first instance, Ilias Zagoraios, is preparing to bring criminal charges against employees of the Pegasus media group and three major Greek banks which are alleged to have granted Pegasus millions of euros in loans without adequate guarantees and to have allowed the loans to remain unserviced.

The so-called "Elevator Dragon" who was convicted 20 years ago to 50 years in prison for raping 28 women, has been accused of murdering a man in the Lycabettus area of Athens in 1996 in front of his girlfriend.

Police were led to the suspect after matching his fingerprints to those found in the car of 21-year-old victim Nikitas Koronios, two decades after the incident.

An Albanian national, 32, was arrested for possession of drugs in the area of Exacrhia in Athens, Saturday afternoon. Police officers of the Attica narcotics unit were led to the suspect after information they received within the framework of ongoing operations against drug trafficking.

A man was arrested on Friday after firing a gun outside an Athens court.

The man, reportedly a relative of Marios Papageorgiou, the 26-year-old victim in an ongoing kidnapping and murder trial, was speaking to the media outside the appeals court in Athens when he pulled out a handgun firing three shots in the air.

Undercover agents arrested the man as he left the scene.

Seven years since three people, including one pregnant woman, died during an arson attack by anti-austerity protesters on a central Athens branch of Marfin Bank, Greece's conservative opposition leader on Friday called for the arrest and punishment of those responsible for the crime.

An Athens court has rejected an appeal by former defense minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos for the reduction of a bail payment of 200,000 euros, a term of his early release.

The 77-year-old, who was handed a 20-year sentence for money laundering in 2013, was released from Korydallos Prison earlier this month due to frail health but had to return after failing to meet bail.

The Athens Court of First Instance on Thursday brought criminal charges of breach of faith against the former governor of the Bank of Greece, Giorgos Provopoulos, and the former chairman of Piraeus Bank, Michalis Sallas, after a probe allegedly found them responsible for losses suffered by social insurance funds ahead of the country's economic crisis.