THIRD SECTION
CASE OF BELTSIOS v. GREECE
(Application no. 57333/14)
 
 
 
 
 
JUDGMENT
 
 
 
 
STRASBOURG
28 November 2023
This judgment is final but it may be subject to editorial revision. In the case of Beltsios v. Greece,
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting as a Committee composed of:
 Yonko Grozev, President,
 Ioannis Ktistakis,
 Andreas Zünd, judges,
and Olga Chernishova, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to:
the application (no. 57333/14) against the Hellenic Republic lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) on 29 July 2014 by a Greek national, Mr Ioannis Beltsios, born in 1951 and living in Athens (“the applicant”) who was represented by Mr I. Anagnostopoulos, a lawyer practising in Athens;
the decision to give notice of the complaints concerning Articles 6 § 2 and 5 § 4 to the Greek Government (“the Government”), represented by their Agent’s delegates, Ms Z. Chatzipavou, senior adviser at the State Legal Council, and to declare inadmissible the remainder of the application;
the parties’ observations;
the decision to reject the Government’s objection to the examination of the application by a Committee;
Having deliberated in private on 7 November 2023,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
1. The case concerns an alleged violation of the presumption of innocence under Article 6 § 2 of the Convention and the alleged failure to decide “speedily” on the application for the applicant’s release under Article 5 § 4. 2. In 2000 a contract was signed for the procurement of submarines from the German consortium H.-F. by the Hellenic Shipyards for a total value exceeding 1,3 billion euros (EUR). In 2002 another contract was signed for the repair of submarines for a total value of over EUR 820 million. In 2010 audit companies in Germany were assigned to perform an internal audit of company F. and a compliance report was issued. On 30 October 2010, following an investigation conducted by the German authorities for corruption, criminal proceedings were opened in Greece against forty-one persons, including the applicant. In 2011 a report was issued by a special committee of the Greek Parliament assigned to investigate the former Defence Minister’s liability as regards the submarine contracts. CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE APPLICANT AND PRE-TRIAL DETENTION
3. In 2011, after the preliminary investigation, criminal proceedings were instituted against the applicant and forty other persons, in respect of having unlawfully assisted a German company to obtain the submarines’ related contracts. In particular, he was accused that he had promised and transferred money to the Minister of Defence at the time A.T., and to the top managers of Hellenic Shipyards, so that they assisted in this action by breaching their duties. A further accusation against him was that between March 2000 and October 2003, together with others and repeatedly, he had intentionally concealed the real origin of over EUR 52 million and over 2,9 million Swiss francs (CHF), as well as received and transferred these sums, resulting from corruption in the context of the submarine contracts. 4. On 29 September 2011 the criminal file was transferred to the Investigating Judge at the Athens Criminal Court of First Instance for the main investigation. The applicant was placed in preliminary detention as of 13 January 2014, confirmed by the Investigating Judge on 18 January 2014. 5. On 23 January 2014 the applicant lodged a recourse (προσφυγή) against the pre-trial detention, requesting its replacement by other preventive measures. On 7 April 2014 the prosecutor submitted his proposal before the Indictment Division of the Athens Criminal Court of First Instance (Συμβούλιο Πλημμελειοδικών) to dismiss the recourse. The Indictment Division met on 27 May 2014 and by order (βούλευμα) no. 1821/2014, published on 6 June 2014, rejected the applicant’s recourse. By order no. 2369/2014 published on 10 July 2014, the Indictment Division ordered extension of detention for six months, namely until 13 January 2015. 6. The applicant lodged an application before the Court on 29 July 2014. 7. By order no. 518/2015 the applicant was referred to trial before the Indictment Division of the Athens Criminal Court of Appeal for i) active bribery to the detriment of the State, committed together with others and repeatedly, under particularly aggravating circumstances, causing the State particularly significant damage, and ii) laundering the proceeds of organised crime together with others and committed as a profession. By the same order his pre-trial detention was replaced by preventive measures. The applicant was detained until 27 March 2015. CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS AGAINST A.T. 8. By order no. 545/2013 former Minister A.T. and eighteen co‑accused (the applicant was not among them) were referred for trial for laundering, together with others and individually, the proceeds of passive bribery in the amount exceeding EUR 150,000. By judgment no. 4554/2013 delivered on 7 October 2013, the three-member Athens Criminal Court (Τριμελές Εφετείο Κακουργημάτων) convicted A.T. as charged. It convicted sixteen other accused for related crimes. 9. The relevant parts of the judgment read as follows:
“[Page 2052] “Further, according to the evidence in the German judicial file, ... executives of company F. agreed to use a team of persons [...]. The team was constituted of persons who could exert pressure [...] so that through bribery the supply of the submarines would be trusted to the consortium. Among the members of the team was [...] Ioannis Beltsios, former associate and acquaintance of the former Minister [...]. These persons, in collaboration with the executives of company F. organised subgroups, in order to exert influence and succeed in entrusting the supply of the submarines to the consortium, satisfying its business interests. ...
[Pages 2059-2060] Among the members of the team, as it is already exposed, were [...] and Beltsios. Beltsios, a civil engineer who, as it is referred to in the compliance report for company F., ... was a close associate and friend of A.T., as exposed in the report of the Parliamentary Committee of 2011, while he had served as a General Secretary at the Ministry of Interior during A.T.’s tenure as the Minister. As reported by [Mr. H.], A.T. recommended ... to use Beltsios, when [Mr. H.] asked [A.T.] what the consortium could do in order to create a ‘counterweight’ against the French competitors. This fact is fully confirmed by what will follow. The initial agreement between company F. and the above consultants (Beltsios, [...] etc.) was that the payments would be made to offshore companies connected with these consultants. ...
[Page 2061] As it appears mainly from the lawsuit of company D. against company F., but also from the compliance report for company F., which draws on material from the archives of company F., [...] Beltsios appeared as a representative of Mr. A., a fact which confirms that he was one of those who received bribe payments on behalf of A.T. ...
[Page 2062] It is very interesting that [...] the Munich Court of First Instance estimates that from 37.3 million euros paid to Mr. A. and to his circle [...] at least one third, namely 12.43 million, was channelled in fact to officials in Greece as bribes. An unknown amount, part of that amount of money, according to the aforementioned considerations, came through Beltsios with the former Minister as recipient. Also Beltsios himself in 2000 had entered into two consulting contracts with company F. and its subsidiary for infrastructure works allegedly in the Hellenic Shipyards (which, as it results from the reports of SDOE [Body for the Prosecution of Economic Crimes] were never executed, proof that they concealed illegal transactions) ... Notwithstanding the bribe payments [Beltsios] received [ανεξάρτητα από τις μίζες που έπαιρνε] on behalf of the former Minister as a representative of Mr. A “consultant” of company F., he also received other bribes [έπαιρνε κι άλλες μίζες] for A.T., as a special “consultant” of the German company. ... ”
SUBSEQUENT DEVELOPMENTS
10. Before the three-member Athens Criminal Court the applicant raised an objection of nullity of the procedure under Article 171 § 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure applicable at the time for non-respect of the presumption of innocence, on the grounds that the court ruling on A.T.’s case accepted the applicant’s guilt and prejudiced the subsequent judicial assessment of his case. On 23 January 2019, by judgment no. 345/2019, the Athens Criminal Court convicted the applicant of aiding and abetting, together with others, the passive bribery of the former Minister of Defence A.T. for the amount of EUR 1,000,000 to the detriment of the State. It rejected his objection, holding that the court had to assess all evidence contained in the judicial file in order to assess the well-foundedness of the accusations and other accused had requested the reading of certain documents for their defence. He was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment. The applicant was acquitted of active bribery and laundering the proceeds of organised crime. The five‑member Athens Court of Appeal, by judgment no. 262/2021, accepted an appeal by the applicant and held that he could no longer be prosecuted as the limitation period had expired.

Article of the Convention at issue: Article 5
Outcome: violation