Former PASOK minister Akis Tsohatxopoulos was lambasted for acceptinb millions of euros in bribes, the cost of which was passed on to the heavily indebted Greek people, by prosecutor Georgia Adilini, who asked for his exemplary punishment. Tsohatzopoulos is the first Greek politician to stand in the dock accused of corruption.
According to the prosecutor there are three main pillars for his condemnation: a) the accounts through which the money was transferred, b) the testimony of Tsohatzopoulos' cousin Nikos Zigras, and c) the testimony of Zigra's ex-wife that highlighted the role of former Cyprus minister of interior Dinos Michailidis as the courier that carried suitcases of illicit money to Tsohatzopoulos.
As concerns the kickback for the purchase of the anti-aircraft missile system TOR M1 from Russian firm Antei, the prosecutor estimated that it alone amounted to 81 million euros, about a 10% of what the state paid for it. The prosecutor estimated that from the initial outlay paid at the signing, around 40% of the system's 850 million euro price tag, around 25 million went directly to Tsohatzopoulos' pocket.
In her address to the court, Adilini noted that political corruption was a global phenomenon no less severe than the problem of drugs and terrorism, citing cases of political bribery by firms such as Siemens, Chrysler, and Glaxo, adding that there was a necessity for a constitutional amendement that would provide for prosecuting politicians, like provided for in other national constitutions.

Israel has expressed interest in the upcoming privatizations of EYDAP and EYATh. the water and sewage treatment utilities of Athens and Thessaloniki, respectively, through its ambassador to Greece.
Ambassador Arie Mekel was speaking at a conference on water availability organized by the Ministry of the Environment, in the presence of miinister Yannis Maniatis and deputy minister Stavros Kalafatis.
The willingness of the two countries to closely cooperate on issues of water management was reaffirmed during the conference, as were the close ties between the two countries.
As was announced, PM Antonis Samaras will be visiting Israel in October, accompanied by six ministers and 100 Greek businesmen, in order to examine possibilities in technology exchange and collaboration in water reclamation projects, among other areas of interest.

The Greek Finance Ministry has announced that the state budget is showing a 3 billion euro primary surplus within the first 8 months of 2013.

According to the ministry, the surplus is mainly due to the transfer of returns from Greek bonds from the Central Banks of the Eurozone, to the tune of 1.5 billion euros and to the increase in revenues by 5.9% against targets set, mainly because of indirect taxes.

Deputy finance minister Christos Staikouras noted that a surplus of 2.9 billion euros was registered for the first eight months of 2013, against a deficit of 1.4 billion during the same period last year. The target was for a surplus of 2.5 billion euros.

The Finance Ministry was also pleased with tax revenues, which came in at 4.3 billion euros for August. This was 400 million euros over the target set. Revenues from indirect taxes beat their target by 26.5 percent and offset the poor performance from income tax.